THOMAS    ALVA    EDISON 


THE  BOY'S 
LIFE  OF  EDISON 


BY 
WILLIAM    H.   MEADOWCROFT 

OF     THE     EDISON     LABORATORY.         AUTHOR     OF 
ABC  OF  ELECTRICITY"   "ABC  OF  THE  X-RAYS" 

WITH  AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL    NOTES 

BY  MR.  EDISON 


ILLUSTRATED 


HARPER    fcf    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 
NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 


COPYRIGHT,    1911,    BY   HARPER   ft    BROTHERS 

PRINTED   IN   THE    UNITED   STATES   OF   AMERICA 

PUBLISHED   NOVEMBER.    1811 


This  hook,  designed  for  toys 
and  girls,  is  published  with 
my  cons  en* 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

THOMAS    ALVA    EDISON 19 1 1 Frontispiece 

EDISON     WHEN     ABOUT     FOURTEEN     OR     FIFTEEN 

YEARS    OF   AGE Facing  p.  34 

"TROUBLE  ON  THE  'QUAD'" **       148 

MR.  EDISON  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  FIVE  DAYS  AND 
NIGHTS  OF  CONTINUED  WORK  IN  PERFECTING 
THE  EARLY  WAX-CYLINDER  TYPE  OF  PHONO- 
GRAPH  JUNE  1 6,  l888 "  1 80 

THE    EDISON    ELECTRIC    RAILWAY    AT    MENLO    PARK 

—l88o ! "          232 

EDISON  AT  THE  OFFICE  DOOR  OF  THE  ORE-CON- 
CENTRATING PLANT  AT  EDISON,  NEW  JERSEY, 

IN    THE    NINETIES "          246 

EDISON    AT    THE    DRAUGHTING-BOARD 274 

EDISON  AT  WORK  IN  ONE  OF  THE  CHEMICAL  ROOMS 

AT   THE   ORANGE     LABORATORY "  I2 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGB 

INTRODUCTION ix 

I.  THE  EARLY  DAYS  OP  ELECTRICITY   ....  i 

II.  EDISON'S  FAMILY 6 

III.  EDISON'S  EARLY  BOYHOOD 19 

IV.  THE  YOUNG  NEWSBOY 27 

V.  A  FEW  STORIES  OP  EDISON'S  NEWSBOY  DAYS  42 

VI.  THE  YOUNG  TELEGRAPH  OPERATOR       ...  55 

VII.  ADVENTURES  OP  A  TELEGRAPH  OPERATOR      .  66 

VIII.  WORK  AND  INVENTION  IN  BOSTON    ....  102 

IX.  FROM  POVERTY  TO  INDEPENDENCE    ....  119 

X.  A  BUSY  YOUNG  INVENTOR 137 

XI.  THE    TELEPHONE,    MOTOGRAPH,    AND   MICRO- 

PHONE        159 

XII.  MAKING  A  MACHINE  TALK 175 

XIII.  A  NEW  LIGHT  IN  THE  WORLD 183 

XIV.  MENLO  PARK 197 

XV.  BEGINNING  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT  BUSINESS   .  208 

XVI.  THE  FIRST  EDISON  CENTRAL  STATION   .     .     .  219 

XVII.  EDISON'S  ELECTRIC  RAILWAY 229 

XVIII.  GRINDING  MOUNTAINS  TO  DUST  , 239 

XIX.  EDISON  MAKES  PORTLAND  CEMENT    ....  253 

XX.  MOTION-PICTURES *.     .     .  264 

XXI.  EDISON  INVENTS  A  NEW  STORAGE  BATTERY.  274 

XXII.  EDISON'S  MISCELLANEOUS  INVENTIONS  .     .     .  284 

XXIII.  EDISON'S  METHOD  IN  INVENTING       ....  294 

XXIV.  EDISON'S  LABORATORY  AT  ORANGE    ....  306 

XXV.  EDISON  HIMSELF 3l8 

INDEX 327 


INTRODUCTION 

THIS  is  the  story  of  a  great  inventor,  the 
most  conspicuous  figure  of  the  age  of 
electricity. 

The  story  is  largely  autobiography,  for, 
through  the  author's  association  with  Mr. 
Edison,  it  has  been  possible  often  to  obtain 
his  own  narrative  of  his  life.  For  nearly 
thirty-one  years  the  author  has  had  the 
privilege  of  a  connection  with  Mr.  Edison  and 
the  Edison  companies,  and  at  present  he  is 
acting  as  Mr.  Edison's  assistant.  Every  page 
of  the  book  has  been  read  by  Mr.  Edison  him- 
self, and  it  is  published  with  his  approval  as 
the  authoritative  story  of  his  life  to  the 
present  time. 

It  is  probably  as  a  worker  of  wonders,  an 
interpreter  of  the  secrets  of  Nature,  an  actual 
wizard  of  science,  that  Edison  fascinates  the 
imagination  of  almost  every  boy.  In  this  pic- 

ix 


INTRODUCTION 

ture  of  the  actual  facts  of  the  inventor's  life 
the  reader  will  find  that  while  Edison  is  just  as 
great  as  imagined,  yet  this  greatness  has  not 
been  reached  by  chance,  but  honestly  earned 
by  the  hardest  kind  of  hard  work  and  the  most 
intense  and  earnest  application.  The  wonder- 
ful things  that  he  has  accomplished  have  been 
the  things  that  he  purposely  set  out  to  do,  and 
are  not  the  result  of  some  happy  thought,  or 
blind  luck,  or  chance. 

Mr.  Edison  is  still  in  the  enjoyment  of  life, 
and  still  hard  at  work.  There  is  no  telling 
what  other  inventions  he  may  yet  make  to 
benefit  the  world,  but  if  he  never  added  any- 
thing to  what  he  has  already  done,  his  life  and 
achievements  afford  the  telling  of  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  stories  in  the  history  of  the 
world. 

The  author  has  had  the  honor  and  pleasure 
of  assisting  in  the  preparation  of  a  large  and 
comprehensive  biography  entitled,  Edison: 
His  Life  and  Inventions,  by  Frank  L.  Dyer 
and  T.  Commerford  Martin,  published  by  the 
publishers  of  the  present  volume.  He  grate- 
fully acknowledges  the  fact  that  certain  fea- 
tures of  this  book  have  been  adapted  from 


INTRODUCTION 

the  pages  of  that  elaborate  biography.  For 
the  permission  to  do  this  he  tenders  his  thanks 
to  his  friends  Frank  L.  Dyer  and  T.  Commer- 
ford  Martin. 

WILLIAM  H.  MEADOWCROFT. 

October  12,   1911. 


THE  BOY'S   LIFE  OF 
EDISON 


THE    EARLY    DAYS    OF    ELECTRICITY 

HTHIS  is  the  life  story  of  the  greatest  of 
*  inventors  in  the  field  of  electricity.  It 
is  true  that  Thomas  A.  Edison  has  helped  the 
progress  of  the  world  by  many  other  inven- 
tions and  discoveries  quite  outside  of  elec- 
tricity, but  it  is  in  this  field  that  ,he  is  best 
known.  Now,  in  this  age  of  electricity,  it 
happens  very  fortunately  that  a  close  personal 
association  with  Mr.  Edison  makes  it  possible 
at  last  to  tell  younger  readers  the  real  story 
of  Mr.  Edison's  life,  partly  in  his  own  words. 
It  has  been  a  life  full  of  surprises  as  well  as  of 
great  achievements,  and  one  of  the  surprises 
which  we  meet  at  the  start  is  that,  unlike 
Mozart,  who  showed  his  musical  genius  in 


t^tE    OF    EDISON 

infancy,  and  unlike  others  devoted  to  one 
thing  from  the  outset,  Edison  took  up  elec- 
tricity almost  by  accident. 

Yet  this  is  not  so  strange  when  we  think  how 
little  electricity  there  was  to  take  up  in 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Elec- 
tricity was  not  studied  in  the  schools.  It  was 
not  a  separate  art  or  business.  Men  of  science 
had  occupied  themselves  with  electricity  for 
a  long  time,  but  they  really  did  not  know  as 
much  about  it  as  a  bright  boy  in  the  upper 
grammar  grades  to-day.  Speaking  in  a  very 
general  way,  we  may  say  that  simple  fric- 
tional  electricity1  was  an  old  story,  that 
Franklin  had  discovered  the  identity  of  elec- 
tricity and  lightning,  and  that  Galvani  had 
discovered  in  1790  and  Volta  had  developed 
in  1 80 1  the  generating  of  electric  currents 
from  batteries  composed  of  zinc  and  copper 
plates  immersed  in  sulphuric  acid. 

But  it  was  not  until  1835,  only  twelve  years 
before  Edison  was  born,  that  Samuel  F.  B. 
Morse  applied  electrical  currents  to  the  send- 
ing of  an  alphabet  of  dots  and  dashes  by  wire. 

1  Made  by  rubbing  certain  objects  together,  like  amber  and 
silk,  the  original  discovery  over  two  thousand  years  ago. 


EARLY   DAYS   OF  ELECTRICITY 

Thus  it  was  in  the  infancy  of  telegraphy  that 
Edison  first  saw  the  light. 

Telegraph  apparatus  in  those  early  days  was 
of  a  crude  and  cumbersome  kind — quite  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  young  students  ex- 
periment with  at  the  present  time.  For  in- 
stance, the  receiving  magnets  of  the  earliest 
telegraphs,  which  performed  the  same  office 
as  the  modern  sounders,  weighed  seventy- five 
pounds  instead  of  a  few  ounces. 

It  was  a  very  difficult  undertaking  for 
Morse  to  establish  the  telegraph  after  he  had 
invented  it.  It  was  such  a  new  idea  that  the 
public  could  not  seem  to  understand  its  use 
and  possibilities.  People  would  not  believe 
that  it  was  possible  to  send  messages  regularly 
over  a  long  stretch  of  wire,  and,  even  if  it  were 
possible,  that  it  would  be  of  much  use  any- 
way. It  took  him  a  long  time  to  raise  money 
to  put  up  a  telegraph  line  between  Baltimore 
and  Washington.  Before  this,  he  had  offered 
to  sell  the  whole  invention  outright  to  the 
United  States  Government  for  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars ;  but  the  Government  did  not 
buy,  as  the  invention  was  not  thought  to  be 
worth  that  much  money. 

3 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

In  1847,  the  year  Edison  was  born,  there 
were  only  a  few  telegraph  circuits  in  existence. 
The  farthest  line  to  the  west  was  in  Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania.  It  was  in  this  early  telegraph 
office  that  Andrew  Carnegie  was  a  messenger 
boy.  We  could  name  a  great  many  more 
notable  men  in  our  country  who  began  their 
careers  in  a  similar  way,  or  as  telegraph  opera- 
tors, in  the  early  days  of  telegraphy,  but  space 
forbids. 

Within  a  few  years  after  Edison  was  born 
there  came  a  great  boom  in  telegraphy,  and 
new  lines  were  put  up  all  over  the  country. 
Thus,  by  the  time  he  had  grown  to  boyhood 
the  telegraph  was  a  well-established  business, 
and  the  first  great  electrical  industry  became 
a  pronounced  success. 

There  were  no  other  electrical  industries  at 
this  time,  except  electro-plating  to  a  limited 
extent.  The  chief  reason  of  this  was  prob- 
ably that  the  only  means  of  obtaining  electrical 
current  was  by  means  of  chemical  batteries, 
as  mechanical  generators  had  not  been  de- 
veloped at  that  time. 

While  the  principles  of  the  dynamo-electric 
machine  had  been  disco verecL  and  §  few  of 


EARLY   DAYS   OF  ELECTRICITY 

these  machines  and  small  electric  motors  had 
been  made  by  scientists,  in  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  such  machines  were 
little  more  than  scientific  toys,  and  not  to  be 
compared  with  the  generators  of  modern  days. 

Edison,  therefore,  was  born  at  the  very 
beginning  of  "The  Age  of  Electricity,"  which 
can  be  said  to  have  actually  begun  about  1840, 
or  soon  after. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  many 
important  and  practical  inventions  that  he 
has  since  contributed  to  the  electrical  arts 
have  had  no  small  weight  in  causing  the 
present  time  to  be  known  as  "The  Age  of 
Electricity." 


II 

EDISON'S  FAMILY 

TT  AD  there  not  been  a  family  difference  of 

*  1  opinion  about  the  War  of  Independence, 
we  might  never  have  had  Edison  the  great 
inventor. 

The  first  Edisons  in  this  country  came  over 
from  Holland  about  the  year  1730.  They 
were  descendants  of  a  family  of  millers  on  the 
Zuyder  Zee,  and  when  they  came  to  America 
they  first  settled  near  Caldwell,  New  Jersey. 

Later  on  they  removed  to  some  land  along 
the  Passaic  River.  It  is  a  curious  and  inter- 
esting coincidence  that  a  hundred  and  sixty 
years  later  Mr.  Edison  established  the  home 
he  now  occupies  in  the  Orange  Mountains, 
which  is  in  the  same  general  neighborhood. 

The  family  must  have  gotten  along  well  in 
the  world,  for  we  find  the  name  of  Thomas 
Edison,  as  a  bank  official  on  Manhattan 
Island,  signed  to  Continental  currency  in 


EDISON'S    FAMILY 

1778.  This  was  Mr.  Edison's  great-grand- 
father, who  lived  to  be  one  hundred  and  four 
years  of  age. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  date,  1778,  that 
this  was  during  the  time  of  the  War  of  In- 
dependence. This  Thomas  Edison  was  a 
stanch  patriot,  who  thoroughly  believed  in 
American  independence.  He  had  a  son  named 
John,  who  differed  with  his  father  in  political 
principles  and  favored  a  continuance  of 
British  rule. 

After  the  war  was  over  John  left  the  coun- 
try, and,  with  many  other  Loyalists,  emi- 
grated to  Nova  Scotia  and  settled  there. 
While  he  still  lived  there  a  son  was  born  to 
him,  at  Digby,  in  1804.  This  son  was  named 
Samuel,  who  became  the  father  of  Thomas 
Alva  Edison,  the  inventor. 

Seven  years  later  John  Edison,  as  a  Loyal- 
ist, became  entitled  under  the  laws  of  Canada 
to  a  grant  of  six  hundred  acres  of  land,  and 
moved  westward  with  his  family  to  take  pos- 
session of  it.  He  made  his  way  through  the 
State  of  New  York  in  wagons  drawn  by  oxen 
to  the  township  of  Bay  field,  in  upper  Canada, 
on  Lake  Huron,  and  there  settled  down, 

7 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Some  time  afterward  John  Edison  moved 
from  Bayfield  to  Vienna,  Ontario,  on  the 
northern  bank  of  Lake  Erie.  As  will  be  un- 
derstood from  the  above,  he  was  the  grand- 
father of  Mr.  Edison,  who  gives  this  recollec- 
tion of  the  old  man  in  those  early  Canadian 
days: 

"  When  I  was  five  years  old  I  was  taken  by 
my  father  and  mother  on  a  visit  to  Vienna. 
We  were  driven  by  a  carriage  from  Milan, 
Ohio,  to  a  railroad,  then  to  a  port  on  Lake 
Erie,  thence  by  a  canal-boat  in  a  tow  of 
several  miles  to  Port  Burwell,  in  Canada, 
across  the  lake,  and  from  there  we  drove  to 
Vienna,  a  short  distance  away.  I  remember 
my  grandfather  perfectly  as  he  appeared  at 
one  hundred  and  twTo  years  of  age,  when  he 
died.  In  the  middle  of  the  day  he  sat  under 
a  large  tree  in  front  of  the  house,  facing  a 
well-traveled  road.  His  head  was  covered 
completely  with  a  large  quantity  of  very 
white  hair,  and  he  chewed  tobacco  incessantly, 
nodding  to  friends  as  they  passed  by.  He 
used  a  very  large  cane,  and  walked  from  the 
chair  to  the  house,  resenting  any  assistance. 
I  viewed  him  from  a  distance,  and  could  never 

8 


EDISON'S    FAMILY 

get  very  close  to  him.  I  remember  some 
large  pipes,  and  especially  a  molasses  jug,  a 
trunk,  and  several  other  things  that  came 
from  Holland." 

John  Edison  was  long-lived,  like  his  father, 
and  died  at  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  two. 
Little  is  known  of  the  early  manhood  of  his 
son  Samuel  (Thomas  A.  Edison's  father), 
until  we  find  him  keeping  a  hotel  at  Vienna, 
and  in  1828  marrying  Miss  Nancy  Elliott,  who 
was  a  school-teacher  there. 

He  was  six  feet  in  height,,  and  was  possessed 
of  great  strength  and  vigor.  He  took  a 
lively  share  in  the  troublous  politics  of  the 
period. 

In  1837  the  Canadian  Rebellion  broke  out. 
The  cause  of  it  was  the  same  as  that  which 
led  to  the  War  of  Independence  in  America — 
taxation  without  representation. 

Samuel  Edison  was  so  ardently  interested 
and  of  such  strong  character  that  he  became 
a  captain  in  the  insurgent  forces  that  rallied 
under  the  banners  of  Papineau  and  Mackenzie. 

The  rebellion  failed,  however,  and  those  who 
had  taken  part  in  it  were  severely  dealt  with. 
Many  of  the  insurgents  went  in  exile  to 

9 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Bermuda,  but  Samuel  Edison  preferred  the 
perils  of  a  flight  to  the  United  States.  He 
therefore  departed  from  Canada  with  his  wife, 
hurriedly  and  secretly. 

There  was  a  romantic  and  thrilling  journey 
of  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  miles  toward 
safety.  The  country  through  which  they 
passed  was  then  very  wild  and  infested  with 
Indians  of  unfriendly  disposition,  and  the 
journey  was  made  almost  entirely  without 
food  or  sleep. 

They  arrived  safely  in  the  United  States, 
however,  and,  after  a  few  years  spent  in 
various  towns  along  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie, 
finally  came  to  Milan,  Ohio,  in  1842.  Here 
they  settled  down  and  made  their  home,  for 
the  place  gave  great  promise  of  abundance  of 
business  and  prosperity. 

In  those  days  railroads  were  few  and  far 
between,  and  there  was  none  near  Milan.  The 
great  quantities  of  grain  that  were  grown  in 
the  surrounding  country  were  sent  to  Eastern 
ports  by  sailing  vessels  over  the  lake.  Milan 
was  connected  by  a  wide  canal  with  the  Huron 
River,  which  emptied  into  Lake  Erie.  Thus 
the  town  became  a  busy  port,  with  grain  ware- 


EDISON'S    FAMILY 

houses  and  elevators,  at  which  as  many  as 
twenty  sailing  vessels  were  loaded  in  a  single 
day. 

There  also  sprang  up  a  brisk  ship-building 
industry,  for  which  the  abundant  forests  of 
the  region  supplied  the  necessary  lumber. 

You  will  see,  therefore,  that  Mr.  Edison's 
father  gave  evidence  of  shrewd  judgment 
when  he  decided  to  make  his  permanent  home 
at  Milan,  for  there  was  plenty  of  occupation,\^ 
with  every  prospect  of  prosperity.  He  was 
always  ready  to  look  on  the  brightest  side  of 
everything,  and  could  and  did  turn  his  hand 
to  many  occupations. 

He  decided  to  make  his  chief  business  the 
manufacture  of  shingles,  for  which  there  was  a 
large  demand,  both  in  the  neighborhood  and 
along  the  shores  of  the  lake.  The  shingles 
were  made  mostly  of  Canadian  wood,  which 
was  imported  for  the  purpose.  They  were 
made  entirely  by  hand  and  of  first-class  wood, 
and  so  well  did  they  last  that  a  house  in  Milan 
on  which  these  shingles  were  put  in  1844  was 
still  in  excellent  condition  forty-two  years 
later.  Samuel  Edison  did  well  in  this  busi- 
ness and  employed  a  number  of  men. 


ii 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

In  a  few  years  after  the  family  had  made 
their  home  at  Milan,  Thomas  Alva  Edison 
was  born  there,  on  February  n,  1847. 

jjrlis  mother  was  an  attractive  and  highly 
educated  woman,  and  her  influence  upon  his 
disposition  has  been  profound  and  lasting. 
She  was  born  in  Chenango  County,  New  York, 
in  1 8 10,  and  was  the  daughter  of  the  Rev. 
John  Elliott,  a  Baptist  minister,  and  descend- 
ant of  an  old  Revolutionary  soldier,  Capt. 
Ebenezer  Elliott,  of  Scotch  descent. 

The  Elliott  family  was  evidently  one  of 
considerable  culture  and  deep  religious  feel- 
ing, for  two  of  Mrs.  Edison's  uncles  and  two 
brothers  were  also  in  the  Baptist  ministry. 
As  a  young  woman  she  became  a  teacher  in 
the  public  high  school  at  Vienna,  Ontario, 
and  thus  met  her  husband,  who  was  residing 
there. 

The  Edison  family  consisted  of  three  chil- 
dren, two  boys  and  a  girl.  Besides  Thomas 
Alva,  there  was  an  elder  brother,  William  Pitt, 
and  a  sister  named  Tannie.  Both  brother  and 
sister  had  considerable  ability,  although  in 
different  lines.  "fWilliam  Pitt  Edison  was 
clever  with  his  pencil,  and  there  was  at  one 

12 


EDISON'S    FAMILY 

time  an  idea  of  having  him  become  an  art 
student;  but  evidently  the  notion  was  not 
carried  out,  for  later  in  life  he  was  manager  of 
the  local  street-railway  lines  at  Port  Huron, 
Michigan,  in  which  he  was  heavily  interested. 

This  talent  for  sketching  seems  to  run  in 
the  family,  for  Thomas  A.  Edison's  first  im- 
pulse in  discussing  any  mechanical  question  is 
to  take  up  the  nearest  piece  of  paper  and 
make  drawings.  Scarcely  a  day  passes  that 
this  does  not  happen.  His  immense  num- 
ber of  note-books  contain  thousands  of  such 
sketches. 

His  sister,  who  in  later  life  became  Mrs. 
Tannie  Edison  Bailey,  had,  on  the  other  hand/ 
a  great  deal  of  literary  ability,  and  spent  much 
qf  her  time  in  writing.  X- 

<VA*  As  a  child  the  great  inventor  was -not  at  all 
strong,  and  was  of  fragile  appearance:  His 
head  was  well  shaped  but  very  large,  and  it  is 
said  that  local  doctors  feared  he  might  have 
brain  trouble. 

On  account  of  his  supposed  delicacy,  he  was 
not  allowed  to  go  to  school  at  as  early  an  age  as 
is  usual.  And  when  he  did  go,  it  was  not  for  a 
long  time.  He  was  usually  at  the  foot  of  his 

13 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

class,  and  the  teacher  had  spoken  of  the  boy 
to  a  school  inspector  as  being  " addled." 

Perhaps  the  reader  can  imagine  the  indig- 
nation of  his  mother  on  hearing  of  this  teach- 
er's report.     She  had  watched  and  studied 
heir  boy  closely,  and  knew  that  he  had  a  mind 
/unusually  receptive  and  mental  powers  far 
v   beyond  those  of  other  children.     So  she  re- 
solved to  take  him  out  of  school  arid  educate 
him  herself. 

It  was  fortunate  that  Mr.  Edison  had  a 
mother  who  was  not  only  loving,  observing, 
and  wise,  but  at  the  same  time  well  informed 
and  ambitious.  From  her  experience  as  a 
teacher,  she  was  able  to  give  him  an  education 
better  than  could  be  had  in  the  local  schools 
of  that  day. 

Under  her  care  the  boy  formed  studious 
habits  and  a  taste  for  good  literature  that 
have  lasted  to  this  day.  He  is  a  great  reader, 
and  what  has  once  been  read  by  him  is  never 
forgotten  if  it  is  in  any  way  useful. 

When  Edison  was  a  child  he  was  deeply 
interested  in  the  busy  scenes  of  the  canal  and 
grain  warehouses,  and  particularly  in  the  ship- 
building yards. 

14 


EDISON'S    FAMILY 

He  asked  so  many  questions  that  he  fairly 
tired  out  his  father,  although  the  older  man 
had  no  small  ability.  It  has  been  reported 
that  other  members  of  the  family  regarded 
the  boy  as  being  mentally  unbalanced  and 
likely  to  be  a  lifelong  care  to  his  parents. 

Even  while  he  was  quite  a  young  child  his 
mechanical  tendencies  showed  themselves  in 
his  fondness  for  building  little  plank  road^x" 
from  the  pieces  of  wood  thrown  out  by  the 
ship-building  yards  and  the  sawmills.  One 
day  he  was  found  in  the  village  square  labori- 
ously copying  the  signs  of  the  stores.! 

To  this  day  Mr.  Edison  is  not  inclined  to 
accept  a  statement  unless  he  can  prove  it  for 
himself  by  experiment.  Once,  when  he  was 
about  six  years  old,  he  watched  a  goose  sitting 
on  her  eggs  and  saw  them  hatch.  Soon  after 
he  was  missing.  By  and  by,  after  an  anxious 
search,  his  father  found  him  sitting  in  a  nest 
he  had  made  in  the  barn  filled  with  goose 
and  hen  eggs  he  had  collected,  trying  to  hatch 
them  out. 

His    remarkable    memory    was    noticeable' 
even  when  he  was  a  child,  for  before  he  was 
'five  years  old  he  had  learned  all  the  songs  of 
2  15 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

the  lumber  gangs  and  of  the  canal  men.  Even 
now  his  recollection  goes  back  to  1850,  when, 
as  a  child  three  or  four  years  old,  he  saw 
camped  in  front  of  his  home  six  covered 
wagons,  "  prairie  schooners/'  and  witnessed 
their  departure  for  California,  where  gold  had 
just  been  discovered. 

Another  of  his  recollections  of  childhood  is 
of  a  sadder  nature.  He  went  off  one  day  with 
another  boy  to  bathe  in  the  creek.  Soon  after 
they  entered  the  water  the  other  boy  dis- 
appeared. Young  Edison  waited  around  for 
about  half  an  hour,  and  then,  as  it  was  grow- 
ing dark,  went  home,  puzzled  and  lonely,  but 
said  nothing  about  the  matter.  About  two 
hours  afterward,  when  the  missing  boy  was 
being  searched  for,  a  man  came  to  the  Edison 
home  to  make  anxious  inquiry  of  the  com- 
panion with  whom  he  had  last  been  seen. 
Edison  told  all  the  circumstances  with  a 
painful  sense  of  being  in  some  way  guilty. 
The  creek  was  at  once  dragged,  and  then  the 
body  was  recovered. 

Edison  himself  had  more  than  one  narrow 
escape.  Of  course,  he  fell  into  the  canal  and 
was  nearly  drowned — few  boys  in  Milan  worth 

16 


EDISON'S    FAMILY 

their  salt  omitted  that  performance.  On  an- 
other occasion  he  fell  into  a  pile  of  wheat  in  a 
grain  elevator  and  was  almost  smothered. 
Holding  the  end  of  a  skate-strap,  that  another 
lad  might  cut  it  with  an  ax,  he  lost  the  top  of 
a  finger.  Fire  also  had  its  peril.  He  built 
a  fire  in  a  barn,  but  the  flames  spread  so 
rapidly  that,  although  he  escaped  himself,  the 
barn  was  wholly  destroyed.  He  was  publicly 
whipped  in  the  village  square  as  a  warning  to 
other  youths.  Equally  well  remembered  is  a 
dangerous  encounter  with  a  ram  which  at- 
tacked him  while  he  was  busily  engaged  dig- 
ging out  a  bumblebee's  nest  near  an  orchard 
fence,  and  was  about  to  butt  him  again  when 
he  managed  to  drop  over  on  the  safe  side  and 
escape.  He  was  badly  hurt  and  bruised,  and 
no  small  quantity  of  arnica  was  needed  for  his 
wounds. 

Meanwhile  railroad  building  had  been  going 
on  rapidly,  and  the  new  Columbus,  Sandusky 
&  Hocking  Railroad  had  reached  Milan  and 
quickly  deprived  it  of  its  flourishing  grain 
trade.  The  town,  formerly  so  bustling  and 
busy,  no  longer  offered  to  so  active  a  man  as 
Mr.  Edison's  father  the  opportunity  of  cpn- 

?7 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

ducting  a  prosperous  business,  so  he  decided 
to  move  away,  \^e  was  well-to-do,  but  he 
determined  to  do  better  elsewhere.  In  1854 
he  and  his  family  removed  to  Port  Huron, 
Michigan,  where  they  occupied  a  large  Colonial 
house  standing  in  the  middle  of  an  old  Govern- 
ment fort  reservation  of  ten  acres,  overlooking 
the  St.  Clair  River  just  after  it  leaves  Lake 
Huron. 

The  old  house  at  Milan  where  Mr.  Edison 
was  born  is  still  in  existence,  and  is  occupied 
at  this  time  (1911)  by  Mr.  S.  O.  Edison,  a 
half-brother  of  Edison's  father,  and  a  man  of 
much  ability. 

This  birthplace  of  Edison  still  remains  the 
plain,  substantial  brick  house  it  was  originally, 
one-storied,  with  rooms  finished  on  the  attic 
floor. 


Ill 

EDISON'S    EARLY    BOYHOOD 

IT  was  when  he  was  about  seven  years  old 
*  that  Edison's  parents  moved  to  Port  Huron, 
Michigan,  and  it  was  there,  a  few  years  later, 
that  he  began  his  active  life  by  becoming  a 
newsboy. 

With  his  mother  he  found  study  easy  and 
pleasant.  The  quality  of  the  education  she 
gave  him  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that 
before  he  was  twelve  years  old  he  had  studied 
the  usual  rudiments  and  had  read,  with  his 
mother's  help,  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  Hume's  History  of  England, 
Sears's  History  of  the  World,  Burton's  Anatomy 
of  Melancholy,  and  the  Dictionary  of  Sciences. 

They  even  tried  to  struggle  through  New- 
ton's Principia,  but  the  mathematics  were  too 
much  for  both  teacher  and  student.  To  this 
day  Edison  has  little  personal  use  for  arith- 
metic beyond  that  which  is  called  "mental." 

19 


THE    BOY'S   LIFE    OF    EDISON 

He  said  to  a  friend,  "I  can  always  hire  some 
mathematicians,  bub  they  can't  hire  me." 

His  father  always  encouraged  his  literary 
tastes,  and  paid  him  a  small  sum  for  each 
book  which  he  mastered.  Although  there  is 
no  fiction  in  the  list,  Edison  has  all  his  life 
enjoyed  it,  particularly  the  works  of  such 
writers  as  Victor  Hugo.  Indeed,  later  on, 
when  he  became  a  telegraph  operator,  he  was 
nicknamed  by  his  associates  "Victor  Hugo 
Edison" — possibly  because  of  his  great  ad- 
miration for  that  writer. 

When  he  was  about  eleven  years  old  he 
became  greatly  interested  in  chemistry.  He 
got  a  copy  of  Parker's  School  Philosophy,  an 
elementary  book  on  physics,  and  tried  almost 
every  experiment  in  it.  He  also  experi- 
mented on  his  own  account.  It  is  said  that 
he  once  persuaded  a  boy  employed  by  the 
family  to  swallow  a  large  quantity  of  Seidlitz 
powders  in  the  belief  that  the  gases  generated 
would  enable  him  to  fly.  The  awful  agonies 
of  the  victim  attracted  attention,  and  Edi- 
son's mother  marked  her  displeasure  by  an 
application  of  the  switch  kept  behind  the  old 
Seth  Thomas  "grandfather's  clock." 

20 


EDISON'S    EARLY    BOYHOOD 

It  was  as  early  as  this  that  young  Alva,  or 
"  Al,"  as  he  was  called,  displayed  a  passion  for 
chemistry,  which  has  never  left  him.  He 
used  the  cellar  of  the  house  for  his  ex- 
periments and  collected  there  no  fewer  than 
two  hundred  bottles  from  various  places. 
They  contained  the  chemicals  with  which  he 
was  constantly  experimenting,  and  were  all 
marked  "  Poison,"  so  that  no  one  else  would 
disturb  them. 

He  soon  became  familiar  with  all  the  chemi- 
cals to  be  had  at  the  local  drug  stores,  for  he 
did  not  believe  the  statements  made  in  his 
books  until  he  had  tested  them  for  himself. 

Edison  used  such  a  large  part  of  his  moth- 
er's cellar  for  this,  his  first  laboratory,  that, 
becoming  tired  of  the  "mess,"  she  once  or- 
dered him  to  clear  out  everything.  The  boy 
was  so  much  distressed  at  this  that  she  re- 
lented, but  insisted  that  he  must  keep  things 
under  lock  and  key  when  he  was  not  there. 
L  Most  of  his  spare  time  was  spent  in  the 
cellar,  for  he  did  not  share  to  any  extent  in 
the  sports  of  the  boys  of  the  neighborhood!] 
His  chum  and  chief  companion  at  this  time 
was  a  Dutch  boy,  much  older  than  himself, 

21 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

named  Michael  Oates,  who  did  chores  around 
the  house.  It  was  Michael  upon  whom  the 
Seidlitz  powder  experiment  was  tried.  J 

As  Edison  got  deeper  into  his  chemical 
studies  his  limited  pocket-money  disappeared 
rapidly.  He  was  being  educated  by  his 
mother,  and,  therefore,  not  attending  a  regular 
school,  and  he  had  read  all  the  books  within 
reach.  So  he  thought  the  matter  out  and 
decided  that  if  he  became  a  train  newsboy  he 
could  earn  all  the  money  he  wanted  for  his 
experiments  and  also  get  fresh  reading  from 
papers  and  magazines.  Besides,  if  he  could  get 
permission  to  go  on  the  train  he  had  in  mind, 
he  would  have  some  leisure  hours  in  Detroit 
and  would  be  able  to  spend  them  at  the  public 
library  free  of  charge.  His  parents  objected, 
particularly  his  mother,  but  finally  he  ob- 
tained their  consent. 

^flt  has  been  thought  by  many  people  that 
his"  family  was  poor,  and  that  it  was  on  account 
of  their  poverty  that  young  Edison  came  to 
sell  newspapers  on  the  train.  This  is  not 
true,  for  his  father  was  a  prosperous  dealer  in 
grain  and  feed,  and  was  also  actively  inter- 
ested in  the  lumber  industry  and  other  things. 

22 


EDISON'S    EARLY    BOYHOOD 

While  he  was  not  rich,  he  made  money  in  his 
business,  and,  having  a  well- stocked  farm  arid 
a  large  orchard  besides,  was  in  comfortable 
circumstances.  Socially  the  family  stood 
high  in  the  town,  where  at  the  time  many 
well-to-do  people  resided. 

It  was  of  his  own  choice  and  because  of  his  \ 
never-satisfied    desire    for    experiment    and 
knowledge  that  Edison  became  a  newsboy. 

In  1859,  when  he  was  twelve  years  old,  he 
applied  for  the  privilege  of  selling  newspapers 
on  the  trains  of  the  Grand  Trunk  Railroad 
between  Port  Huron  and  Detroit.  After  -a 
short  delay  the  necessary  permission  was 
obtained. 

Even  before  this  he  had  had  some  business 
experience.  His  father  had  laid  out  a  "  mar- 
ket-garden" on  the  farmland  young  Edison, 
at  eleven  years  of  age,  and  Michael  Oates 
had  worked  in  it  pretty  steadily.  In  the 
season  the  two-boys  would  load  up  a  wagon 
with  onions,  lettuce,  pease,  etc.,  and  drive 
through  the  town  to  sell  their  produce.  As 
much  as  $600  was  turned  over  to  Mrs.  Edison 
in  one  year  from  this  source. 

Edison  was  industrious,  but  he  did  not  take 
23 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

kindly  to  farming.      He  tells  us  about  this 
himself: 

"After  a  while  I  tired  of  this  work.  Hoe- 
ing corn  in  a  hot  sun  is  unattractive,  and  I  did 
not  wonder  that  boys  had  left  the  farm  for  the 
city.  Soon  the  Grand  Trunk  Railroad  was 
extended  from  Toronto  to  Port  Huron,  at  the 
foot  of  Lake  Huron,  and  thence  to  Detroit,  at 
about  the  same  time  the  War  of  the  Rebellion 
broke  out.  v/By  a  great  amount  of  persistence 
I  got  permission  from  my  mother  to  go  on  the 
local  train  as  newsboy.  The  local  train  from 
Port  Huron  to  Detroit,  a  distance  of  sixty- 
three  miles,  left  at  7  A.M.  and  arrived  again  at 
9.30  P.M.  After  being  on  the  train  for  several 
months,  I  started  two  stores  at  Port  Huron — 
one  for  periodicals  and  the  other  for  vege- 
tables, butter,  and  berries  in  the  season.  These 
were  attended  by  two  boys,  who  shared  in  the 
profits.  The  periodical  store  I  soon  closed, 
as  the  boy  in  charge  could  not  be  trusted. 
The  vegetable  store  I  kept  up  for  nearly  a 
year.  After  the  railroad  had  been  opened  a 
short  time  they  put  on  an  express,  which  left 
Detroit  in  the  morning  and  returned  in  the 
evening.  I  received  permission  to  put  a 

24 


EDISON'S    EARLY    BOYHOOD 

newsboy  on  this  train.  Connected  with  this 
train  was  a  car,  one  part  for  baggage  and  the 
other  part  for  United  States  mail,  but  for  a 
long  time  it  was  not  used.  Every  morning 
I  had  two  large  baskets  of  vegetables  from 
the  Detroit  market  loaded  in  the  mail  car  and 
sent  to  Port  Huron,  when  the  boy  would  take 
them  to  the  store.  They  were  much  better 
than  those  grown  locally,  and  sold  readily.  I  / 
never  was  asked  for  freight,  and  to  this  day  / 
cannot  explain  why,  except  that  I  was  so 
small  and  industrious  and  the  nerve  to  appro- 
priate a  United  States  mail  car  to  dc/  a  free 
freight  business  was  so  monumental  How- 
ever, I  kept  this  up  for  a  long  time,  and  in 
addition  bought  butter  from  the  farmers  along 
the  line  and  an  immense  amount  of  black- 
berries in  the  season.  I  bought  wholesale 
and  at  a  low  price,  and  permitted  the  wives 
of  the  engineers  and  trainmen  to  have  the 
benefit  of  the  discount.  After  a  while  there 
was  a  daily  immigrant  train  put  on.  This 
train  generally  had  from  seven  to  ten  coaches, 
filled  always  with  Norwegians,  all  bound  for 
Iowa  and  Minnesota.  On  these  trains  I  em- 
ployed a  boy  who  sold  bread,  tobacco,  and 

25 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

stick  candy.  As  the  war  progressed  the  daily 
newspaper  sales  became  very  profitable,  and 
I  gave  up  the  vegetable  store." 

This  shrewd  commercial  instinct,  and  the 
capacity  for  carrying  on  successfully  several 
usiness  undertakings  at  the  same  time,  were 
certainly  remarkable  in  a  boy  only  thirteen 
years  old.  And  now,  having  had  a  glimpse  of 
Edison's  very  early  youth,  let  us  begin  a  new 
chapter  and  follow  his  further  adventures  as  a 
newsboy  on  a  railway  train. 


IV 

THE    YOUNG   NEWSBOY 

C BISON'S  train  left  Port  Huron  at  seven 
*-*  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  arrived  at 
Detroit  in  about  three  hours.  It  did  not  leave 
Detroit  again  until  quite  late  in  the  afternoon, 
arriving  at  Port  Huron  about  nine-thirty  at 
night.  This  made  a  long  day  for  the  boy, 
but  it  gave  him  an  opportunity  to  do  just 
what  he  wanted,  which  was  to  read,  to  buy 
chemicals  and  apparatus,  and  to  indulge  in  his 
favorite  occupation — chemical  experimenta- 
tion. 

The  train  was  made  up  of  three  coaches — 
baggage,  smoking,  and  ordinary  passenger. 
The  baggage-car  was  divided  into  three  com- 
partments— one  for  trunks  and  packages,  one 
for  the  mail,  and  one  for  smoking. 

As  there  was  no  ventilation  in  this  smoking- 
compartment,  no  use  was  made  of  it.  It  was 
therefore  turned  over  to  young  Edison,  who 

27 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

not  only  kept  his  papers  there  and  his  stock  of 
goods  as  a  "  candy  butcher,"  but  he  also  trans- 
ferred to  it  the  contents  of  the  precious  labora- 
tory from  his  mother's  cellar.  He  found 
plenty  of  leisure  on  the  two  daily  runs  of 
the  train  to  follow  up  his  study  of  chem- 
istry. 

His  earnings  on  the  train  were  excellent, 
for  he  often  took  in  eight  or  ten  dollars  a  day. 
One  dollar  a  day  always  went  to  his  mother, 
and,  as  he  was  thus  supporting  himself,  he  felt 
entitled  to  spend  any  other  profit  left  over  on 
chemicals  and  apparatus.  Detroit  being  a 
large  city,  he  could  obtain  a  greater  variety 
there  than  in  his  own  small  town.  He  spent 
a  great  deal  of  time  in  reading  up  on  his 
favorite  subject  at  the  public  library,  where 
he  could  find  plenty  of  technical  books.Xf  hus 
he  gave  up  most  of  his  time  and  all  his  money 
to  chemistry. 

He  did  not  confine  himself  entirely  to  chem- 
istry in  his  reading  at  the  Detroit  public 
/library,  but  sought  to  gain  knowledge  on 
other  subjects.  It  is  a  matter  of  record  that 
in  the  beginning  of  his  reading  he  started  in 
with  a  certain  section  of  the  library  and  tried 


THE    YOUNG    NEWSBOY 

to  read  it  through,  shelf  by  shelf,  regardless 
of  subject. 

x  Edison  went  along  in  this  manner  for  quite 
a  long  time.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out 
he  noticed  that  there  was  a  much  greater 
demand  for  newspapers.  He  became  am- 
bitious to  publish  a  local  journal  of  his  own. 
So  his  little  laboratory  in  the  smoking-com- 
partment  received  some  additions  which  made 
it  also  a  newspaper  office. 

He  picked  up  a  second-hand  printing-press 
in  Detroit  and  bought  some  type.  With  his 
mechanical  ability,  it  was  not  a  difficult  matter 
to  learn  the  rudiments  of  the  printing  art, 
and  as  some  of  the  type  was  kept  on  the  train 
he  could  set  it  up  in  moments  of  leisure. 
Thus  he  became  the  compositor,  pressman, 
editor,  proprietor,  publisher,  and  newsdealer 
of  the  Weekly  Herald.  The  price  was  three  * 
cents  a  copy,  or  eight  cents  a  month  for 
regular  subscribers  and  the  circulation  ran  up 
to  over  four  hundred  copies  an  issue.  Only 
one  or  two  copies  of  this  journal  are  now  to 
be  found. 

It  was  the  first  newspaper  in  the  world 
printed  on  a  train  in  motion.      It  received  the 

29 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

patronage  of  the  famous  English  engineer, 
Stephenson,  and  was  also  noted  by  the  London 
Times.  As  the  production  of  a  boy  of  four- 
teen it  was  certainly  a  clever  sheet,  and  many 
people  were  willing  subscribers,  for,  by  the  aid 
of  the  railway  telegraph,  Edison  was  often 
able  to  print  late  news  of  local  importance 
which  could  not  be  found  in  regular  papers, 
like  those  of  Detroit. 

Edison's  business  grew  so  large  that  he 
employed  a  boy  friend  to  help  him.  There 
was  often  plenty  of  work  for  both  in  the  early 
days  of  the  war,  when  the  news  of  battle 
caused  great  excitement. 

In  order  to  increase  the  sales  of  newspapers, 
Edison  would  telegraph  the  news  ahead  to 
the  agents  of  stations  where  the  train 
stopped  and  get  them  to  put  up  bulletins, 
so  that,  when  the  stations  were  reached,  there 
would  usually  be  plenty  of  purchasers  wait- 
ing. 

He  recalls  in  particular  the  sensation  caused 
by  the  great  battle  of  Shiloh,  or  Pittsburg 
Landing,  in  April,  1862,  in  which  both  Grant 
and  Sherman  were  engaged,  in  which  the  Con- 
federate General  Johnston  was  killed,  and  in 

3° 


THE    YOUNG    NEWSBOY 

which  there  was  a  great  number  of  men  killed 
and  wounded. 

The  bulletin-boards  of  the  Detroit  news- 
papers were  surrounded  by  dense  crowds, 
which  read  that  there  were  about  sixty  thou- 
sand killed  and  wounded,  and  that  the  result 
was  uncertain.  Edison,  in  relating  his  experi- 
ence^ bf  that  day,  says: 

\Jr\  knew  if  the  same  excitement  was  shown 
at  the  various  small  towns  along  the  road,  and 
especially  at  Port  Huron,  the  sale  of  papers 
would  be  great.  I  then  conceived  the  idea, 
of  telegraphing  the  news  ahead,  went  to  the 
operator  in  the  depot,  and,  on  my  giving  him 
Harper's  Weekly  and  some  other  papers  for 
three  months,  he  agreed  to  telegraph  to  all 
the  stations  the  matter  on  the  bulletin-board. 
I  hurriedly  copied  it,  and  he  sent  it,  requesting 
the  agents  to  display  it  on  the  blackboards 
used  for  stating  the  arrival  and  departure  of 
trains.  I  decided  that,  instead  of  the  usual 
one  hundred  papers,  I  could  sell  one  thousand; 
but  not  having  sufficient  money  to  purchase 
that  number,  I  determined  in  my  desperation 
to  see  the  editor  himself  and  get  credit.  The 
great  paper  at  that  time  was  the  Detroit  Free 

3  31 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Press.  I  walked  into  the  office  marked 
'Editorial'  and  told  a  young  man  that  I 
wanted  to  see  the  editor  on  important  busi- 
ness— important  to  me,  anyway. 

"  I  was  taken  into  an  office  where  there  were 
two  men,  and  I  stated  what  I  had  done  about 
telegraphing,  and  that  I  wanted  a  thousand 
papers,  but  only  had  money  for  three  hundred, 
and  I  wanted  credit.  One  of  the  men  refused 
it,  but  the  other  told  the  first  spokesman  to 
let  me  have  them.  This  man,  I  afterward 
learned,  was  Wilbur  F.  Storey,  who  subse- 
quently founded  the  Chicago  Times  and  be- 
came celebrated  in  the  newspaper  world. 
With  the  aid  of  another  boy  I  lugged  the 
papers  to  the  train  and  started  folding  them. 
The  first  station,  called  Utica,  was  a  small  one, 
where  I  generally  sold  two  papers.  I  saw  a 
crowd  ahead  on  the  platform,  and  thought  it 
was  some  excursion,  but  the  moment  I  landed 
there  was  a  rush  for  me;  then  I  realized  that 
the  telegraph  was  a  great  invention.  I  sold 
thirty-five  papers  there.  The  next  station  was 
Mount  Clemens,  now  a  watering-place,  but 
then  a  town  of  about  one  thousand  population. 
I  usually  sold  six  to  eight  papers  there.  I  de- 

32 


THE    YOUNG    NEWSBOY 

cided  that  if  I  found  a  corresponding  crowd 
there  the  only  thing  to  do  to  correct  my 
lack  of  judgment  in  not  getting  more  papers 
was  to  raise  the  price  from  five  cents  to  ten. 
The  crowd  was  there,  and  I  raised  the  price. 
At  the  various  towns  there  were  corresponding 
crowds.  It  had  been  my  practice  at  Port 
Huron  to  jump  from  the  train  at  a  point  about 
one-fourth  of  a  mile  from  the  station,  where 
the  train  generally  slackened  speed.  I  had 
drawn  several  loads  of  sand  to  this  point  to 
jump  on,  and  had  become  quite  expert.  The 
little  Dutch  boy  with  the  horse  met  me  at  this 
point.  When  the  wagon  approached  the  out- 
skirts of  the  town  I  was  met  by  a  large  crowd. 
I  then  yelled:  'Twenty-five  cents  apiece, 
gentlemen!  I  haven't  enough  to  go  around!' 
I  sold  out,  and  made  what  to  me  then  was  an 
immense  sum  of  money. " 

But  this  and  similar  gains  of  money  did  not 
increase  Edison's  savings,  for  all  his  spare 
cash  was  spent  for  new  chemicals  and  appa- 
ratus. He  had  bought  a  copy  of  Fresenius's 
Qualitative  Analysis,  and,  with  his  ceaseless 
testing  and  study  of  its  advanced  problems, 
his  little  laboratory  on  the  train  was  now 

33 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

becoming  crowded  with  additional  equipment, 
especially  as  he  now  added  electricity  to  his 
studies. 

"  While  a  newsboy  on  the  railroad,"  says 
Edison,  "  I  got  very  much  interested  in  elec- 
tricity, probably  from  visiting  telegraph  offices 
with  a  chum  who  had  tastes  similar  to  mine." 

We  have  already  seen  that  he  wa&  shrewd 
enough  to  use  the  telegraph  to  get  news  items 
for  his  own  little  journal  and  also  to  bulletin 
his  special  news  of  the  Civil  War  along  the  line. 
To  such  a  ceaseless  experimenter  as  he  was, 
it  was  only  natural  that  electricity  should 
come  in  for  a  share  of  his  attention.  With  his 
knowledge  of  chemistry,  he  had  no  trouble  in 
" setting  up"  batteries,  but  his  difficulty  lay 
in  obtaining  instruments  and  material  for  cir- 
cuits. 

To-day  any  youth  who  desires  to  experi- 
ment with  telegraphy  or  telephony  can  find 
plenty  of  stores  where  apparatus  can  be 
bought  ready  made,  or  he  can  make  many 
things  himself  by  following  the  instruc- 
tions in  Harper's  Electricity  Book  for  Boys. 
But  in  Edison's  boyish  days  it  was  quite 
different.  Telegraph  supplies  were  hard  to 

34 


EDISON    WHEN    ABOUT    FOURTEEN    OR    FIFTEEN    YEARS    OF   AGE 


THE    YOUNG    NEWSBOY 

obtain,  and  amateurs  were  usually  obliged  to 
make  their  own  apparatus. 

However,  he  and  his  chum  had  a  line  be- 
tween their  homes,  built  of  common  stove-pipe 
wire.  The  insulators  were  bottles  set  on 
nails  driven  into  trees  and  short  poles.  The 
magnet  wire  was  wound  with  rags  for  insula- 
tion, and  pieces  of  spring  brass  were  used  for 
telegraph  keys. 

With  the  idea  of  securing  current  cheaply, 
Edison  applied  the  little  he  knew  about  static 
electricity,  and  actually  experimented  with 
cats.  He  treated  them  vigorously  as  fric- 
tional  machines  until  the  animals  fled  in  dis- 
may, leaving  their  marks  to  remind  the  young 
inventor  of  his  first  great  lesson  in  the  relative 
value  of  sources  of  electrical  energy.  Resort- 
ing to  batteries,  however,  the  line  was  made  to 
work,  and  the  two  boys  exchanged  messages. 

Edison  wanted  lots  of  practice,  and  secured 
it  in  an  ingenious  manner.  If  he  could  have 
had  his  way  he  would  have  sat  up  until  the 
small  hours  of  the  morning,  but  his  father 
insisted  on  eleven-thirty  as  the  proper  bed- 
time, which  left  but  a  short  interval  after  a 
long  day  on  the  train. 

35 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Now,  each  evening,  when  the  boy  went 
home  with  newspapers  that  had  not  been  sold, 
his  father  would  sit  up  to  read  them.  So 
Edison  on  some  excuse  had  his  friend  take  the 
papers,  but  suggested  to  his  father  that  he 
could  get  the  news  from  the  chum  by  tele- 
graph bit  by  bit.  The  scheme  interested  the 
father,  and  was  put  into  effect,  the  messages 
over  the  wire  being  written  down  by  Edison 
and  handed  to  the  old  gentleman  to  read. 

This  gave  good  practice  every  night  until 
twelve  or  one  o'clock,  and  was  kept  up  for 
some  time,  until  the  father  became  willing  that 
his  son  should  sit  up  for  a  reasonable  time. 
The  papers  were  then  brought  home  again, 
and  the  boys  practised  to  their  hearts 'content, 
until  the  line  was  pulled  down  by  a  stray  cow 
wandering  through  the  orchard. 

Now  we  come  to  the  incident  which  may  be 
regarded  as  turning  Edison's  thoughts  more 
definitely  to  electricity.  One  August  morn- 
ing, in  1862,  the  mixed  train  on  which  he 
worked  as  newsboy  was  doing  some  shunting 
at  Mount  Clemens  station.  A  laden  box-car 
had  been  pushed  out  of  a  siding,  when  Edison, 
who  was  loitering  about  the  platform,  saw 

36 


THE    YOUNG    NEWSBOY 

the  little  son  of  the  station  agent,  Mr.  J.  U. 
Mackenzie,  playing  with  the  gravel  on  the 
main  track,  along  which  the  car,  without  a 
brakeman,  was  rapidly  approaching. 

Edison  dropped  his  papers  and  his  cap  and 
made  a  dash  for  the  child,  whom  he  picked  up 
and  lifted  to  safety  without  a  second  to  spare, 
as  the  wheel  struck  his  heel.  Both  were  cut 
about  the  face  and  hands  by  the  gravel  bal- 
last on  which  they  fell. 

The  two  boys  were  picked  up  by  the  train- 
hands  and  carried  to  the  platform,  and  the 
grateful  father,  who  knew  and  liked  the 
rescuer,  offered  to  teach  him  the  art  of  train 
telegraphy  and  to  make  an  operator  of  him. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  proposal  was 
most  eagerly  accepted. 

Edison  found  time  for  his  new  studies  by 
letting  one  of  his  friends  look  after  the  news- 
boy work  on  the  train  for  part  of  the  trip, 
keeping  for  himself  the  run  between  Port 
Huron  and  Mount  Clemens.  We  have  al- 
ready seen  that  he  was  qualified  as  a  beginner, 
and,  besides,  he  was  able  to  take  to  the  station 
a  neat  little  set  of  instruments  he  had  just 
finished  at  a  gun  shop  in  Detroit. 

37 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

What  with  his  business  as  newsboy,  his 
publication  of  the  Weekly  Herald,  his  reading 
and  chemical  and  electrical  experiments,  Edi- 
son was  leading  a  busy  life  and  making  rapid 
progress,  but  unexpectedly  there  came  dis- 
aster, which  brought  about  a  sudden  change. 
One  day,  shortly  after  he  had  rescued  Mr. 
Mackenzie's  child,  as  the  train  was  running 
swiftly  over  a  piece  of  poorly  laid  track,  there 
was  a  sudden  lurch,  and,  before  Edison  could 
catch  it,  a  stick  of  phosphorus  was  jarred  from 
its  shelf,  fell  to  the  floor  and  burst  into  flame. 

The  car  took  fire,  and  Edison  was  trying  in 
vain  to  put  out  the  blaze  when  the  conductor, 
a  quick-tempered  Scotchman,  rushed  in  with 
water  and  saved  the  car.  On  arriving  at 
the  next  station,  Mount  Clemens,  the  enraged 
conductor  promptly  put  the  boy  off  with  his 
entire  outfit,  including  his  laboratory  and 
printing-plant. 

It  was  through  this  incident  that  Edison 
acquired  his  lifelong  deafness,  for  the  con- 
ductor boxed  his  ears  so  severely  as  to  cause 
this  infirmity.  To  most  people  this  would  be 
an  affliction,  but  not  so  to  Mr.  Edison,  who 
said  about  it  recently: 

3* 


THE    YOUNG    NEWSBOY 

"  This  deafness  has  been  of  great  advantage 
to  me  in  various  ways.  When  in  a  telegraph 
office  I  could  hear  only  the  instrument  direct- 
ly on  the  table  at  which  I  sat,  and,  unlike  the 
other  operators,  I  was  not  bothered  by  the 
other  instruments.  Again,  in  experimenting 
on  the  telephone,  I  had  to  improve  the  trans- 
mitter so  that  I  could  hear  it.  This  made  the 
telephone  commercial,  as  the  magneto  tele- 
phone receiver  of  Bell  was  too  weak  to  be  used 
as  a  transmitter  commercially.  ^  It  was  the 
same  with  the  phonograph.  The  great  defect 
of  that  instrument  was  the  rendering  of  the 
overtones  in  music  and  the  hissing  consonants 
in  speech.  I  worked  over  one  year,  twenty 
hours  a  day,  Sundays  and  all,  to  get  the  word 
"specie"  perfectly  recorded  and  reproduced 
on  the  phonograph.  When  this  was  done  J 
knew  that  everything  else  could  be  done — 
which  was  a  fact.  Again,  my  nerves  have 
been  preserved  intact.  Broadway  is  as  quiet 
to  me  as  a  country  village  is  to  a  person  with 
normal  hearing." 

But  we  left  young  Edison  on  the  station 
platform,  sorrowful  and  indignant,  as  the  train 
moved  off,  deserting  him  in  the  midst  of  his 

39 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

beloved  possessions.  He  was  saddened,  but 
not  altogether  discouraged,  and  after  some 
trouble  succeeded  in  making  his  way  home, 
where  he  again  set  up  his  laboratory  and  also 
his  printing-office.  There  was  some  objection 
on  the  part  of  the  family,  as  they  feared  that 
they  might  also  suffer  from  fire,  but  he  prom- 
ised not  to  bring  in  anything  of  a  dangerous 
nature. 

He  continued  to  publish  the  Weekly  Herald, 
but  after  a  while  was  persuaded  by  a  chum  to 
change  its  character  and  publish  it  under  the 
name  of  Paid  Pry,  making  it  a  journal  of  town 
gossip  about  local  people  and  their  affairs  and 
peculiarities. 

No  copies  of  Paul  Pry  can  now  be  found, 
but  it  is  known  that  its  style  was  distinctly 
personal,  and  the  weaknesses  of  the  towns- 
people were  discussed  in  it  very  freely  and 
frankly  by  the  two  boys.  It  caused  no  small 
offense,  and  in  one  instance  Edison  was 
pitched  into  the  St.  Clair  River  by  one  of  the 
victims  whose  affairs  had  been  given  such 
unsought  publicity. 

Possibly  this  was  one  of  the  reasons  that 
caused  Edison  to  give  up  the  paper  not  very 

40 


THE    YOUNG    NEWSBOY 

long  afterward.  He  had  a  great  liking  for 
newspaper  work,  and  might  have  continued  in 
that  field  had  it  not  been  for  strong  influences 
in  other  directions.  There  is  no  question, 
however,  that  he  wait  the  youngest  publisher 
and  editor  of  his  time. 


A    FEW   STORIES    OF   EDISON  S    NEWSBOY    DAYS 

'""THE  Grand  Trunk  Railroad  machine  shops 
*  at  Port  Huron  had  a  great  attraction  for 
young  Edison.  The  boy  who  was  to  have 
much  to  do  with  the  evolution  of  the,  modern 
electric  locomotive  in  later  years  "was  fasci- 
nated with  the  mechanism  of  the  steam  loco- 
motive. Whenever  he  could  get  the  chance 
he  would  ride  with  the  engineer  in  the  cab,  and 
he  liked  nothing  better  than  to  handle  the 
locomotive  himself  during  the  run.  Edison's 
own  account  of  what  happened  on  one  of 
these  trips  is  very  laughable.  He  says: 

"The  engine  was  one  of  a  number  leased  to 
the  Grand  Trunk  by  the  Chicago,  Burlington 
&  Quincy.  It  had  bright  brass  bands  all  over 
the  woodwork,  was  beautifully  painted,  and 
everything  was  highly  polished,  which  was  the 
custom  up  to  the  time  old  Commodore  Van- 
derbilt  stopped  it  on  his  roads.  It  was  a 

42 


EDISON'S    NEWSBOY    DAYS 

slow  freight  train.  The  engineer  and  fireman 
had  been  out  all  night  at  a  dance.  After 
running  about  fifteen  miles  they  became  so 
sleepy  that  they  couldn't  keep  their  eyes 
open,  and  agreed  to  permit  me  to  run  the 
engine.  I  took  charge,  reducing  the  speed  to 
about  twelve  miles  an  hour,  and  brought  the 
train  of  seven  cars  to  her  destination  at  the 
Grand  Trunk  junction  safely.  But  some- 
thing occurred  which  was  very  much  out  of 
the  ordinary.  I  was  greatly  worried  about 
the  water,  and  I  knew  that  if  it  got  low  the 
boiler  was  likely  to  explode.  I  hadn't  gone 
twenty  miles  before  black,  damp  mud  blew 
out  of  the  stack  and  covered  every  part  of 
the  engine,  including  myself.  I  was  about  to 
awaken  the  fireman  to  find  out  the  cause  of 
this,  when  it  stopped.  Then  I  approached  a 
station  where  the  fireman  always  went  out  to 
the  cow-catcher,  opened  the  oil-cup  on  the 
steam-chest,  and  poured  oil  in.  I  started  to 
carry  out  the  procedure,  when,  upon  opening 
the  oil-cup,  the  steam  rushed  out  with  a 
tremendous  noise,  nearly  knocking  me  off  the 
engine.  I  succeeded  in  closing  the  oil-cup 
and  got  back  in  the  cab,  and  made  up  my 

43 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

mind  that  she  would  pull  through  without  oil. 
I  learned  afterward  that  the  engineer  always 
shut  off  steam  when  the  fireman  went  to  oil. 
This  point  I  failed  to  notice..  My  powers  of 
observation  were  very  much  improved  after 
this  occurrence.  Just  before  I  reached  the 
junction  another  outpour  of  black  mud  oc- 
curred, and  the  whole  engine  was  a  sight — so 
much  so  that  when  I  pulled  into  the  yard 
everybody  turned  to  see  it,  laughing  im- 
moderately. I  found  the  reason  of  the  mud 
was  that  I  carried  so  much  water  it  passed 
over  into  the  stack,  and  this  washed  out  all 
the  accumulated  soot." 

One  afternoon,  about  a  week  before  Christ- 
mas, the  train  on  which  Edison  was  a  news- 
boy jumped  the  track.  Four  old  cars  with 
rotten  sills  went  all  to  pieces,  distributing  figs, 
raisins,  dates,  and  candies  all  over  the  track. 
Hating  to  see  so  much  waste,  the  boy  tried  to 
save  all  he  could  by  eating  it  on  the  spot,  but, 
as  a  result,  he  says,  "our  family  doctor  had 
the  time  of  his  life  with  me." 

Another  incident,  which  shows  free  and 
easy  railroading  and  Southern  extravagance, 
is  related  by  Edison,  as  follows; 

44 


EDISON'S    NEWSBOY    DAYS 

"In  1860,  just  before  the  war  broke  out, 
there  came  to  the  train  one  afternoon  in 
Detroit  two  fine-looking  young  men,  accom- 
panied by  a  colored  servant.  They  bought 
tickets  for  Port  Huron,  the  terminal  point  for 
the  train.  After  leaving  the  junction  just 
outside  of  Detroit,  I  brought  in  the  evening 
papers.  When  I  came  opposite  the  two 
young  men,  one  of  them  said,  'Boy,  what 
have  you  got ?'  I  said, ' Papers/  'All  right.' 
He  took  them  and  threw  them  out  of  the 
window,  and,  turning  to  the  colored  man, 
said,  'Nicodemus,  pay  this  boy.'  I  told 
Nicodemus  the  amount,  and  he  opened  a 
satchel  and  paid  me.  The  passengers  didn't 
know  what  to  make  of  the  transaction.  I 
returned  with  the  illustrated  papers  and 
magazines.  These  were  seized  and  thrown 
out  of  the  window,  and  I  was  told  to  get  my 
money  of  Nicodemus.  I  then  returned  with 
all  the  old  magazines  and  novels  I  had  not 
been  able  to  sell,  thinking  perhaps  this  would 
be  too  much  for  them.  I  was  small  and  thin, 
and  the  layer  reached  above  my  head,  and 
was  all  I  could  possibly  carry.  I  had  pre- 
pared a  list,  and  knew  the  amount  in  case  they 

45 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

bit  again.  When  I  opened  the  door  all  the 
passengers  roared  with  laughter.  I  walked 
right  up  to  the  young  men.  One  asked  me 
what  I  had.  I  said,  'Magazines  and  novels.' 
He  promptly  threw  them  out  of  the  window, 
and  Nicodemus  settled.  Then  I  came  in 
with  cracked  hickory  nuts,  then  popcorn 
balls,  and,  finally,  molasses  candy.  All  went 
out  of  the  window.  I  felt  like  Alexander  the 
Great! — I  had  no  more  chances!  I  had  sold 
all  I  had.  Finally  I  put  a  rope  to  my  trunk, 
which  was  about  the  size  of  a  carpenter's 
chest,  and  started  to  pull  this  from  the  bag- 
gage-car to  the  passenger-car.  It  was  almost 
too  much  for  my  strength,  but  at  last  I  got  it 
in  front  of  those  men.  I  pulled  off  my  coat 
and  hat  and  shoes  and  laid  them  on  the  chest. 
Then  the  young  man  asked,  *  What  have  you 
got,  boy  ?'  I  said,  '  Everything,  sir,  that  I  can 
spare  that  is  for  sale.'  The  passengers  fairly 
jumped  with  laughter.  Nicodemus  paid  me 
$27  for  this  last  sale,  and  threw  the  whole  out 
of  the  door  in  the  rear  of  the  car.  These  men 
were  from  the  South,  and  I  have  always  re- 
tained a  soft  spot  in  my  heart  for  a  Southern 
gentleman." 

46 


EDISON'S    NEWSBOY    DAYS 

While  Edison  was  a  newsboy  on  the  train 
a  request  came  to  him  one  day  to  go  to  the 
office  of  E.  B.  Ward  &  Co.,  at  that  time  the 
largest  owners  of  steamboats  on  the  Great 
Lakes.  The  captain  of  their  largest  boat  had 
died  suddenly,  and  they  wanted  a  message 
taken  to  another  captain  who  lived  about  four- 
teen miles  from  Ridgeway  station  on  the  rail- 
road. This  captain  had  retired,  taken  up  some 
lumber  land,  and  had  cleared  part  of  it.  Edi- 
son was  offered  fifteen  dollars  by  Mr.  Ward  to 
go  and  fetch  him,  but  as  it  was  a  wild  country 
and  would  be  dark,  Edison  stood  out  for 
twenty-five  dollars,  so  that  he  could  get  the 
companionship  of  another  lad.  The  terms 
were  agreed  to.  Edison  arrived  at  Ridgeway 
at  8.30  P.M.,  when  it  was  raining  and  as  dark 
as  ink.  Getting  with  difficulty  another  boy 
to  volunteer,  he  launched  out  on  his  errand 
in  the  pitch-black  night.  The  two  boys 
carried  lanterns,  but  the  road  was  a  rough 
path  through  dense  forest.  The  country  was 
wild,  and  it  was  quite  usual  to  see  deer,  bear, 
and  coon  skins  nailed  up  on  the  sides  of  houses 
to  dry.  Edison  had  read  about  bears,  but 
couldn't  remember  whether  they  were  day  or 
*  47 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

night  prowlers.  The  farther  they  went,  the 
more  afraid  they  became,  and  every  stump  in 
the  forest  looked  like  a  bear.  The  other  lad 
proposed  seeking  safety  up  a  tree,  but  Edison 
objected  on  the  plea  that  bears  could  climb, 
and  that  the  message  must  be  delivered  that 
night  to  enable  the  captain  to  catch  the  morn- 
ing train.  First  one  lantern  went  out,  then 
the  other.  Edison  says:  "We  leaned  up 
against  a  tree  and  cried.  I  thought  if  I  ever 
got  out  of  that  scrape  alive  I  would  know  more 
about  the  habits  of  animals  and  everything 
else,  and  be  prepared  for  all  kinds  of  mis- 
chance when  I  again  undertook  an  enterprise. 
However,  the  intense  darkness  dilated  the 
pupils  of  our  eyes  so  as  to  make  them  very 
sensitive,  and  we  could  just  see  at  times  the 
outline  of  the  road.  Finally,  just  as  a  faint 
gleam  of  daylight  arrived,  we  entered  the 
captain's  yard  and  delivered  the  message.  In 
my  whole  life  I  never  spent  such  a  night  of 
horror  as  that,  but  I  got  a  good  lesson/* 

An  amusing  incident  of  this  period  is  told 
by  Edison.  "When  I  was  a  boy,"  he  says, 
"the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  late  King  Edward, 
came  to  Canada  (1860).  Great  preparations 

48 


EDISON'S    NEWSBOY    DAYS 

were  made  at  Sarnia,  the  Canadian  town 
opposite  Port  Huron.  About  every  boy, 
including  myself,  went  over  to  see  the  affair. 
The  town  was  draped  in  flags  most  profusely, 
and  carpets  were  laid  on  the  cross-walks  for 
the  Prince  to  walk  on.  There  were  arches, 
etc.  A  stand  was  built,  raised  above  the 
general  level,  where  the  Prince  was  to  be 
received  by  the  Mayor.  Seeing  all  these  prep- 
arations, my  idea  of  a  prince  was  very  high; 
but  when  he  did  arrive  I  mistook  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle  for  him,  the  Duke  being  a  fine- 
looking  man.  I  soon  saw  that  I  was  mis- 
taken, that  the  Prince  was  a  young  stripling, 
and  did  not  meet  expectations.  Several  of  us 
expressed  our  belief  that  a  prince  wasn't 
much  after  all,  and  said  that  we  were  thor- 
oughly disappointed.  For  this  one  boy  was 
whipped.  Soon  the  Canuck  boys  attacked 
the  Yankee  boys,  and  we  were  all  badly  licked. 
I,  myself,  got  a  black  eye.  That  has  always 
prejudiced  me  against  that  kind  of  ceremonial 
and  folly," 

Many  years  afterward,  when  Edison  had 
won  fame  by  many  inventions,  including  his 
electric-light  system,  and  had  been  awarded 

49 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

the  Albert  Gold  Medal  by  the  Royal  Society 
of  Arts,  it  was  this  same  prince  who  wrote  a 
graceful  letter  which  accompanied  the  medal. 
Here  is  another  of  Mr.  Edison's  stories: 
"After  selling  papers  in  Port  Huron,  which 
was  often  not  reached  until  about  nine-thirty 
at  night,  I  seldom  got  home  before  eleven 
or  eleven-thirty.  About  half-way  home  from 
the  station  and  the  town,  and  within  twenty- 
five  feet  of  the  road,  in  a  dense  wood,  was  a 
soldiers'  graveyard,  where  three  hundred  sol- 
diers were  buried,  due  to  a  cholera  epidemic 
which  took  place  at  Fort  Gratiot,  near  by, 
many  years  previously.  At  first  we  used  to 
shut  our  eyes  and  run  the  horse  past  this 
graveyard,  and  if  the  horse  stepped  on  a  twig 
my  heart  would  give  a  violent  movement, 
and  it  is  a  wonder  that  I  haven't  some  valvular 
disease  of  that  organ.  But  soon  this  running 
of  the  horse  became  monotonous,  and  after 
a  while  all  fears  of  graveyards  absolutely 
disappeared  from  my  system.  I  was  in  the 
condition  of  Sam  Houston,  the  pioneer  and 
founder  of  Texas,  who,  it  was  said,  knew  no 
fear.  Houston  lived  some  distance  from  the 
town,  and  generally  went  home  late  at  night, 


EDISON'S    NEWSBOY    DAYS 

having  to  pass  through  a  dark  cypress  swamp 
over  a  corduroy  road.  One  night,  to  test  his 
alleged  fearlessness,  a  man  stationed  himself 
behind  a  tree,  and  enveloped  himself  in  a 
sheet.  He  confronted  Houston  suddenly,  and 
Sam  stopped  and  said:  '  If  you  are  a  man,  you 
can't  hurt  me.  If  you  are  a  ghost,  you  don't 
want  to  hurt  me.  And  if  you  are  the  devil, 
come  home  with  me;  I  married  your  sister!' ' 

We  have  already  seen  that  Edison  was  of  an 
exceedingly  studious  nature  and  full  of  am- 
bition to  work,  experiment,  and  hustle.  The 
serious  side  of  his  nature  did  not,  however, 
wholly  prevail.  He  had  a  keen  enjoyment  of  / 
a  joke,  even  as  he  has  now,  and  in  his  boyhood 
days  had  no  particular  objection  if  it  took 
a  practical  form.  The  following,  as  related 
by  him,  is  one  of  many: 

"  After  the  breaking  out  of  the  War  there 
was  a  regiment  of  volunteer  soldiers  quartered 
at  Fort  Gratiot,  the  reservation  extending  to 
the  boundary  line  of  our  house.  Nearly 
every  night  we  would  hear  a  call  such  as 
'Corporal  of  the  Guard  No.  i.'  This  would 
be  repeated  from  sentry  to  sentry,  until  it 
reached  the  barracks,  when  Corporal  of  the 

51 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Guard  No.  i  would  come  and  see  what  was 
wanted.  I  and  the  little  Dutch  boy,  upon 
returning  from  the  town  after  selling  our 
papers,  thought  we  would  take  a  hand  at 
military  affairs.  So  one  night,  when  it  was 
very  dark,  I  shouted  for  Corporal  of  the 
Guard  No.  i.  The  second  sentry,  thinking  it 
was  the  terminal  sentry  who  shouted,  repeated 
it  to  the  third,  and  so  on.  This  brought  the 
corporal  along  the  half  mile,  only  to  find  that 
he  was  fooled.  We  tried  him  three  nights; 
but  the  third  night  they  were  watching,  and 
caught  the  little  Dutch  boy,  took  him  to  the 
lock-up  at  the  fort,  and  shut  him  up.  They 
chased  me  to  the  house.  I  rushed  for  the  cel- 
lar. In  one  small  compartment,  where  there 
were  two  barrels  of  potatoes  and  a  third  one 
nearly  empty,  I  poured  these  remnants  into  the 
other  barrels,  sat  down,  and  pulled  the  empty 
barrel  over  my  head,  bottom  up.  The  sol- 
diers had  awakened  my  father,  and  they  were 
searching  for  me  with  candles  and  lanterns. 
The  corporal  was  absolutely  certain  I  came 
into  the  cellar,  and  couldn't  see  how  I  could 
have  gotten  out,  and  wanted  to  know  from 
my  father  if  there  was  no  secret  hiding-place. 

5* 


EDISON'S    NEWSBOY    DAYS 

On  assurance  of  my  father,  who  said  that 
there  was  not,  he  said  it  was  most  extraor- 
dinary. I  was  glad  when  they  left,  as  I  was 
cramped,  and  the  potatoes  that  had  been  in 
the  barrel  were  rotten  and  violently  offensive. 
The  next  morning  I  was  found  in  bed,  and 
received  a  good  switching  on  the  legs  from 
my  father,  the  first  and  only  one  I  ever  re- 
ceived from  him,  although  my  mother  kept 
behind  the  old  Seth  Thomas  clock  a  switch 
that  had  the  bark  worn  off.  My  mother's 
ideas  and  mine  differed  at  times,  especially 
when  I  got  experimenting  and  mussed  up 
things.  The  Dutch  boy  was  released  next 
morning." 

It  may  have  seemed  strange  to  you,  on 
reading  this  and  the  previous  chapter,  that  a 
lad  so  young  as  Edison  was  during  the  news- 
boy period — from  about  twelve  to  fifteen 
years  of  age — should  have  been  allowed  such 
wide  liberty.  An  extensive  traveler  for  those 
days,  going  early  and  returning  late,  an  ex- 
perimenter in  chemistry,  a  publisher,  printer, 
newsdealer,  amateur  locomotive  engineer,  and 
what  not,  covered  a  large  range  of  experience 
and  action  for  one  so  youthful. 

53 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

To  others  of  the  family  than  his  mother  he 
was  accounted  a  strange  boy,  some  believing 
him  to  be  mentally  unbalanced.  His  mother, 
however,  understood  that  his  was  no  ordinary 
mind,  for  she  had  studied  him  thoroughly. 
While  she  watched  him  closely,  she  allowed 
him  the  widest  possible  sphere  of  action  and 
encouraged  his  ever  increasing  studies. 

A  member  of  the  family,  in  talking  recently 
with  the  writer,  said  that  when  any  one  ex- 
pressed nervousness  about  young  Edison  dur- 
ing his  absences  she  would  say:  "Al  is  all 
right.  Nothing  will  happen  to  him.  God  is 
taking  care  of  him." 


VI 

THE  YOUNG  TELEGRAPH  OPERATOR 

AFTER  Edison's  expulsion  from  the  train 
with  his  laboratory  and  belongings,  his 
career  as  a  newsboy  came  to  a  sudden  close. 
But,  while  he  felt  some  disappointment,  he 
was  not  discouraged  and  was  none  the  less 
busy.  As  we  have  seen,  he  published  his 
local  paper  for  a  while  and  also  continued 
his  chemical  experiments  at  home.  In  addi- 
tion, he  plunged  deeply  into  the  study  of 
telegraphy  under  Mr.  Mackenzie's  tuition. 

Edison  took  to  telegraphy  enthusiastically, 
giving  to  it  no  less  than  eighteen  hours  a  day. 
After  some  months  he  had  made  such  progress 
that  he  put  up  a  telegraph  line  from  the  sta- 
tion to  the  village,  about  a  mile  distant,  and 
opened  an  office  in  a  drug  store ;  but  the  busi- 
ness there  was  very  light  and  the  office  was 
not  continued  long. 

A  little  later  he  became  the  regular  operator 
55 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

at  Port  Huron.  The  office  was  in  the  store  of 
a  Mr.  M.  Walker,  who  sold  jewelry  and  also 
newspapers  and  periodicals.  Edison  was  to 
be  found  at  the  office  both  day  and  night,  and 
slept  there. 

He  says:  "I  became  quite  valuable  to  Mr. 
Walker.  After  working  all  day  I  worked  at 
the  office  nights  as  well,  for  the  reason  that 
1  press  reports '  came  over  one  of  the  wires  until 
3  A.M.,  and  I  would  cut  in  and  copy  it  as  well 
as  I  could,  to  become  proficient  more  rapidly. 
The  goal  of  the  rural  telegraph  operator  was 
to  be  able  to  take  press.  Mr.  Walker  tried 
to  get  my  father  to  apprentice  me  at  twenty 
dollars  per  month,  but  they  could  not  agree. 
I  then  applied  for  a  job  on  the  Grand  Trunk 
Railroad  as  a  railway  operator,  and  was  given 
a  place,  nights,  at  Stratford  Junction,  Canada. " 

Many  years  afterward  Mr.  Walker  described 
the  boy  of  sixteen  as  engrossed  intensely  in  his 
experiments  and  scientific  reading.  The  tele- 
graph office  was  not  a  busy  one,  but  some- 
times messages  taken  in  would  remain  unsent 
while  Edison  was  in  the  cellar  busy  on  some 
chemical  problem. 

He  would  be  seen  at  times  reading  a  scien- 
56 


THE    YOUNG    OPERATOR 

tific  paper  and  then  disappearing  to  buy  a  few 
sundries  for  experiments.  Returning  from 
the  drug  store  with  his  chemicals,  he  would 
not  be  seen  again  until  required  by  his  duties, 
or  until  he  had  found  out  for  himself,  if  possi- 
ble, the  truth  of  the  statement  he  had  been 
reading.  If  wanted  for  his  experiment,  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  make  free  use  of  the  watch- 
maker's tools  that  lay  on  the  table  in  the 
front  window.  ^  His  one  idea  was  to  do  quickly 
what  he  wanted  to  do;  and  this  tendency  is 
still  one  of  his  marked  characteristics.  1 

The  telegrapher's  position  at  Stratford 
Junction,  Canada,  was  taken  by  Edison  in 
1863,  when  he  was  sixteen  years  old,  and  paid 
him  twenty-five  dollars  per  month.  In  speak- 
ing of  it  he  has  since  remarked  that  there  was 
little  difference  between  the  telegraph  of  that 
time  and  that  of  to-day.  He  says:  "The 
telegraph  men  couldn't  explain  how  it  worked, 
and  I  was  always  trying  to  get  them  to  do  so. 
I  think  they  couldn't.  I  remember  the  best 
explanation  I  got  was  from  an  old  Scotch  line 
repairer  employed  by  the  Montreal  Telegraph 
Company,  which  operated  the  railroad  wires. 
He  said  that  if  you  had  a  dog  like  a  dachshund, 

57 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

long  enough  to  reach  from  Edinburgh  to 
London,  if  you  pulled  his  tail  in  Edinburgh  he 
would  bark  in  London.  I  could  understand 
that,  but  I  never  could  get  it  through  me 
what  went  through  the  dog  or  over  the  wire." 
Edison  was  ever  keenly  anxious  to  add  to 
his  stock  of  experimental  apparatus,  as  an 
incident  of  this  period  shows:  "  While  work- 
ing at  Stratford  Junction,"  he  says,  "I  was 
told  by  one  of  the  freight  conductors  that  in 
the  freight-house  at  Goodrich  there  were 
several  boxes  of  old  broken-up  batteries.  I 
went  there  and  found  over  eighty  cells  of  the 
well-known  Grove  nitric-acid  battery.  The 
operator  there,  who  was  also  agent,  when 
asked  by  me  if  I  could  have  the  electrodes  of 
each  cell,  which  were  made  of  sheet  platinum, 
gave  his  permission  readily,  thinking  they 
were  of  tin.  I  removed  them  all,  and  they 
amounted  to  several  ounces  in  weight.  Plat- 
inum even  in  those  days  was  very  expensive, 
costing  several  dollars  an  ounce,  and  I  owned 
only  three  small  strips.  I  was  overjoyed  at 
this  acquisition,  and  those  very  strips  and  the 
reworked  scrap  are  used  to  this  day  in  my 
laboratory,  over  forty  years  later." 

58 


THE    YOUNG    OPERATOR 

It  was  while  he  was  employed  as  a  night 
operator  at  Stratford  Junction  that  Edison's 
inventiveness  was  first  displayed.  In  order 
to  make  sure  that  the  operators  were  not 
asleep  they  were  required  to  send  the  signal 
"  6  "  to  the  train  despatcher's  office  every  hour 
during  the  night.  Now,  Edison  spent  all  day 
in  study  and  experiment,  but  he  needed  sleep, 
just  as  any  healthy  youth  does,  and  so  he 
made  a  small  wheel  with  notches  on  the  rim 
and  attached  it  to  the  clock  and  line.  At 
night  he  connected  it  with  the  circuit,  and  at 
each  hour  the  wheel  revolved  and  automati- 
cally sent  in  the  dots  required  for  "sixing." 

The  invention  was  a  success,  but  the  train 
despatcher  soon  noticed  that  frequently,  in 
spite  of  the  regularity  of  the  report,  Edison's 
office  could  not  be  raised  even  if  a  message 
were  sent  immediately  after.  An  investiga- 
tion followed,  which  revealed  this  ingenious 
device,  and  he  received  a  reprimand. 

A  serious  occurrence  that  might  have  re- 
sulted in  accident  drove  him  soon  after  from 
Canada,  although  the  youth  could  hardly  be 
held  to  blame  for  it.  Edison  says:  "This 
night  job  just  suited  me,  as  I  could  have  the 

59 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

whole  day  to  myself.  I  had  the  faculty  of 
sleeping  in  a  chair  any  time  for  a  few  minutes 
at  a  time.  I  taught  the  night  yardman  my 
call,  so  I  could  get  half  an  hour's  sleep  now 
and  then  between  trains,  and  in  case  the 
station  was  called  the  watchman  would 
awaken  me.  One  night  I  got  an  order  to  hold 
a  freight  train,  and  I  replied  that  I  would. 
I  rushed  out  to  find  the  signalman,  but  before 
I  could  find  him  and  get  the  signal  set  the 
train  ran  past.  I  ran  to  the  telegraph  office, 
and  reported  that  I  could  not  hold  her.  The 
train  despatcher,  on  the  strength  of  my  mes- 
sage that  I  would  hold  the  train,  had  per- 
mitted another  to  leave  the  last  station  in  the 
opposite  direction.  There  was  a  lower  sta- 
tion near  the  junction,  where  the  day  operator 
slept.  I  started  for  it  on  foot.  The  night 
was  dark,  and  I  fell  into  a  culvert  and  was 
knocked  senseless." 

Fortunately,  the  two  engineers  saw  each 
other  approaching  and  stopped  in  time  to 
prevent  an  accident.  Edison,  however,  was 
summoned  to  the  general  manager's  office  to 
be  tried  for  neglect  of  duty.  During  the  trial 
two  Englishmen  called,  and  while  they  were 


THE    YOUNG    OPERATOR 

talking  with  the  manager  the  youthful  opera- 
tor slipped  out,  jumped  on  a  freight  train 
going  to  Sarnia,  and  was  not  happy  until  the 
ferryboat  from  Sarnia  had  landed  him  safe  on 
the  Michigan  shore. 

The  same  winter,  of  1863-64,  while  at  Port 
Huron,  Edison  had  a  further  opportunity  of 
showing  his  ingenuity.  An  ice -jam  had 
broken  the  telegraph  cable  laid  in  the  bed  of 
the  river  across  to  Sarnia,  and  communication 
was  interrupted.  The  river  is  three-quarters 
of  a  mile  wide,  and  could  not  be  crossed  on 
foot,  nor  could  the  cable  be  repaired. 

Edison  suggested  using  the  steam  whistle 
of  a  locomotive  to  give  the  long  and  short 
signals  of  the  Morse  code.  An  operator  on 
the  Sarnia  shore  was  quick  enough  to  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  the  strange  whistling, 
and  thus  messages  were  sent  in  wireless 
fashion  across  the  ice-floes  in  the  river. 

Young  Edison  had  no  inclination  to  return 
to  Canada  after  his  late  experience  there.  He 
decided,  however,  that  he  would  stick  to 
telegraphy  as  a  business,  and,  after  a  short  stay 
at  home  in  Port  Huron,  set  out  to  find  work  as 
an  operator  in  another  city.  And  thus  he 

fit 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

commenced  the  roaming  and  drifting  life  which 
in  the  next  five  years  took  him  all  over  the 
Middle  States. 

At  this  time  the  Civil  War  was  in  progress, 
and  many  hundreds  of  skilled  operators  were 
at  the  front  with  the  army,  engaged  exclu- 
sively in  government  service.  Consequent- 
ly there  was  a  great  scarcity  of  telegraphers 
throughout  all  the  cities  and  towns  of  the 
country.  For  this  reason  it  was  not  difficult 
for  an  operator  to  get  work  wherever  he  might 
go.  Thus  one  might  gratify  a  desire  to  travel 
and  get  experience  without  running  much 
risk  of  privation. 

There  were  a  great  many  others  besides 
Edison  who  wandered  about  from  city  to  city, 
working  awhile  in  one  place  and  drifting  to 
another.  As  a  rule,  they  were  bright,  happy- 
go-lucky  fellows,  full  of  the  spirit  of  good 
comradeship,  and  willing  to  share  bed,  board, 
and  pocket-money  with  those  who  might  tem- 
porarily be  less  fortunate  than  themselves. 

Many  of  them  used  telegraphy  as  a  stepping- 
stone  to  better  themselves  in  life,  while  others, 
unfortunately,  became  dissipated,  and,  becom- 
ing unreliable  through  drink,  could  not  hold  a 

62 


THE    YOUNG    OPERATOR 

position  for  long.  Had  Edison  been  by  nature 
less  persistent  and  industrious  than  he  was, 
this  miscellaneous  companionship  might  have 
tended  to  wreck  his  career,  but  all  through 
his  life,  from  boyhood,  he  has  been  particu- 
larly abstemious  and  has  had  a  contempt  for 
the  wastefulness  of  time,  money,  and  health 
entailed  by  the  drink  habit. 

Throughout  this  period  of  his  life  Edison, 
although  wandering  from  place  to  place,  never 
ceased  to  study,  explore,  and  experiment. 
Referring  to  this  beginning  of  his  career,  he 
mentions  a  curious  fact  that  throws  light  on 
his  ceaseless  application.  "  After  I  became 
a  telegraph  operator,"  he  says,  "I  practised 
for  a  long  time  to  become  a  rapid  reader  of 
print,  and  got  so  expert  I  could  sense  the 
meaning  of  a  whole  line  at  once.  This  faculty, 
I  believe,  should  be  taught  in  schools,  as  it 
appears  to  be  easily  acquired.  Then  one  can 
read  two  or  three  books  in  a  day,  whereas  if 
each  word  at  a  time  only  is  sensed  reading  is 
laborious." 

During  this  wandering  period  of  his  life 
Edison  made  many  friends,  one  of  the  earliest 
of  whom  was  Milton  F.  Adams,  who  had  a 
5  63 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

strange  career.  Of  him  Edison  says:  ''Adams 
was  one  of  a  class  of  operators  never  satisfied 
to  work  at  any  place  for  any  great  length  of 
time.  He  had  the  'wanderlust.'  After  en- 
joying hospitality  in  Boston  in  1868-69,  on 
the  floor  of  my  hall  bedroom,  which  was  a 
paradise  for  the  entomologist,  while  the 
boarding-house  itself  was  run  on  the  Banting 
system  of  flesh  reduction,  he  came  to  me  one 
day  and  said:  'Good-by,  Edison,  I  have  got 
sixty  cents,  and  I  am  going  to  San  Fran- 
cisco.' And  he  did  go.  How,  I  never  knew 
personally.  I  learned  afterward  that  he  got 
a  job  there,  and  then  within  a  week  they  had  a 
telegraphers'  strike.  He  got  a  big  torch  and 
sold  patent  medicine  on  the  streets  at  night 
to  support  the  strikers.  Then  he  went  to 
Peru  as  partner  of  a  man  who  had  a  grizzly 
bear  which  they  proposed  entering  against  a 
bull  in  the  bull-ring  in  that  city.  The  grizzly 
was  killed  in  five  minutes,  and  so  the  scheme 
died.  Then  Adams  crossed  the  Andes,  and 
started  a  market  report  bureau  in  Buenos 
Ayres.  This  didn't  pay,  so  he  started  a 
restaurant  in  Pernambuco,  Brazil.  There  he 
did  very  well,  but  something  went  wrong  (as  it 

64 


THE    YOUNG    OPERATOR 

always  does  to  a  nomad),  so  he  went  to  the 
Transvaal,  and  ran  a  panorama  called  '  Para- 
dise Lost'  in  the  Kaffir  kraals.  This  didn't 
pay,  and  he  became  the  editor  of  a  newspaper; 
then  he  went  to  England  to  raise  money  for 
a  railroad  in  Cape  Colony.  Next  I  heard  of 
him  in  New  York,  having  just  arrived  from 
Bogota,  United  States  of  Colombia,  with  a 
power  of  attorney  and  two  thousand  dollars 
from  a  native  of  that  republic,  who  applied 
for  a  patent  for  tightening  a  belt  to  prevent 
it  from  slipping  on  a  pulley — a  device  which 
he  thought  a  new  and  great  invention,  but 
which  was  in  use  ever  since  machinery  was 
invented.  I  gave  Adams  then  a  position  as 
salesman  for  electrical  apparatus.  This  he 
soon  got  tired  of,  and  I  lost  sight  of  him." 


VII 

ADVENTURES   OF   A   TELEGRAPH    OPERATOR 

THE  first  position  that  Edison  took  after 
leaving     Canada    so    hurriedly    was    at 
Adrian,    Michigan,    and    of   what   happened 
there  he  tells  a  story  typical  of  his  wanderings 
for  several  years  to  come. 

"After  leaving  my  first  job  at  Stratford 
Junction  I  got  a  position  as  operator  on  the 
Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  at  Adrian, 
Michigan,  in  the  division  superintendent's 
office.  As  usual,  I  took  the  'night  trick,' 
which  most  operators  disliked,  but  which  I 
preferred,  as  it  gave  me  more  leisure  to  experi- 
ment. I  had  obtained  from  the  station  agent 
a  small  room,  and  had  established  a  little  shop 
of  my  own.  One  day  the  day  operator  wanted 
to  get  off,  and  I  was  on  duty.  About  nine 
o'clock  the  superintendent  handed  me  a 
despatch  which  he  said  was  very  important, 
and  which  I  must  get  off  at  once.  The  wire 

66 


ADVENTURES 

at  the  time  was  very  busy,  and  I  asked  if  I 
should  break  in.  I  got  orders  to  do  so,  and, 
acting  under  those  orders  of  the  superin- 
tendent, I  broke  in  and  tried  to  send  the 
despatch;  but  the  other  operator  would  not 
permit  it,  and  the  struggle  continued  for  ten 
minutes.  Finally  I  got  possession  of  the 
wire  and  sent  the  message.  The  superin- 
tendent of  telegraph,  who  then  lived  in  Adrian 
and  went  to  his  office  in  Toledo  every  day, 
happened  that  day  to  be  in  the  Western 
Union  office  up-town — and  it  was  the  super- 
intendent I  was  really  struggling  with!  In 
about  twenty  minutes  he  arrived,  livid  with 
rage,  and  I  was  discharged  on  the  spot.  I 
informed  him  that  the  general  superintendent 
had  told  me  to  break  in  and  send  the  despatch, 
but  the  general  superintendent  then  and 
there  repudiated  the  whole  thing.  Their 
families  were  socially  close,  so  I  was  sacrificed. 
My  faith  in  human  nature  got  a  slight  jar." 

From  Adrian  Edison  went  to  Toledo, 
Ohio,  and  secured  a  position  at  Fort  Wayne, 
on  the  Pittsburg,  Fort  Wayne  &  Chicago 
Railroad.  This  was  a  "day  job,"  and  he  did 
not  like  it.  Two  months  later  he  drifted  to 

67 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Indianapolis,  arriving  there  in  the  fall  of  1864, 
when  for  the  first  time  he  entered  the  employ 
of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company, 
with  which  in  later  years  he  entered  into  closer 
relationship.  At  this  time,  however,  he  was 
assigned  to  duty  at  Union  Station,  at  a  salary 
of  seventy-five  dollars  a  month. 

He  did  not  stay  long  in  Indianapolis,  how- 
ever, leaving  in  February,  1865,  and  going 
from  there  to  Cincinnati.  This  change  was 
possibly  caused  by  one  of  his  early  inventions, 
which  has  been  spoken  of  by  an  expert-  as 
probably  the  most  simple  and  ingenious 
arrangement  of  connections  for  a  repeater. 

His  ambition  was  to  take  " press  report,'* 
which  would  come  over  the  wire  quite  fast, 
but  finding,  even  after  considerable  practice, 
that  he  " broke"  frequently,  he  adjusted  two 
embossing  Morse  registers — one  to  receive  the 
press  matter  and  the  other  to  repeat  the  dots 
and  dashes  at  a  lower  speed,  so  that  the  mes- 
sage could  be  copied  leisurely.  Hence,  he 
could  not  be  rushed  or  " broken"  in  receiving, 
while  he  could  turn  out  copy  that  was  a  marvel 
of  neatness  and  clearness.  This  went  well 
under  ordinary  conditions,  but  when  an  un- 

68 


ADVENTURES 

dsual  pressure  occurred  he  fell  behind,  and 
the  newspapers  complained  of  the  slowness 
with  which  the  reports  were  delivered  to 
them.  As  to  this  device,  Mr.  Edison  said 
recently:  "  Together  we  took  press  for  several 
nights,  my  companion  keeping  the  apparatus 
in  adjustment  and  I  copying.  The  regular 
press  operator  would  go  to  the  theater  or  take 
a  nap,  only  finishing  the  report  after  i  A.M. 
One  of  the  newspapers  complained  of  bad 
copy  toward  the  end  of  the  report — that  is, 
from  i  to  3  A.M. — and  requested  that  the 
operators  taking  the  report  up  to  i  A.M., 
which  were  ourselves,  take  it  all,  as  the  copy 
then  was  perfectly  unobjectionable.  This  led 
to  an  investigation  by  the  manager,  and  the 
scheme  was  forbidden. 

"This  instrument  many  years  afterward 
was  applied  by  me  to  transferring  messages 
from  one  wire  to  any  other  wire  simultane- 
ously or  after  any  interval  of  time.  It  con- 
sisted of  a  disk  of  paper,  the  indentations 
being  formed  in  a  volute  spiral,  exactly  as  in 
the  disk  phonograph  to-day.  It  was  this 
instrument  which  gave  me  the  idea  of  the 
phonograph  while  working  on  the  telephone." 

69 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Arriving  in  Cincinnati,  Edison  got  employ- 
ment  in  the  Western  Union  Commercial  Tele- 
graph Department  at  sixty  dollars  per  month. 
Here  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Milton  F. 
Adams,  referred  to  in  the  preceding  chapter. 
Speaking  of  that  time,  Mr.  Adams  says: 

"  I  can  well  recall  when  Edison  drifted  in  to 
take  a  job.  He  was  a  youth  of  about  eighteen 
years,  decidedly  unprepossessing  in  dress  and 
rather  uncouth  in  manner.  I  was  twenty-one, 
and  very  dudish.  He  was  quite  thin  in  those 
days,  and  his  nose  was  very  prominent,  giving 
a  Napoleonic  look  to  his  face,  although  the 
curious  resemblance  did  not  strike  me  at  the 
time.  The  boys  did  not  take  to  him  cheer- 
fully, and  he  was  lonesome.  I  sympathized 
with  him,  and  we  became  close  companions. 
As  an  operator  he  had  no  superiors,  and  very 
few  equals.  Most  of  the  time  he  was  'monkey- 
ing' with  the  batteries  and  circuits,  and  de- 
vising things  to  make  the  work  of  telegraphy 
less  irksome.  He  also  relieved  the  monotony 
of  office  work  by  fitting  up  the  battery  cir- 
cuits to  play  jokes  on  his  fellow-operators,  and 
to  deal  with  the  vermin  that  infested  the 
premises.  He  arranged  in  the  cellar  what  he 

70 


ADVENTURES 

called  his  'rat  paralyzer,'  a  very  simple  con- 
trivance, consisting  of  two  plates  insulated 
from  each  other  and  connected  with  the  main 
battery.  They  were  so  placed  that  when  a 
rat  passed  over  them  the  fore  feet  on  the  one 
plate  and  the  hind  feet  on  the  other  completed 
the  circuit,  and  the  rat  departed  this  life, 
electrocuted.'* 

Shortly  after  Edison's  arrival  in  Cincinnati 
came  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  and  the  assas- 
sination of  President  Lincoln.  One  of  Edi- 
son's reminiscences  is  interesting  as  showing 
the  mechanical  way  in  which  some  telegraph 
operators  do  their  work.  "I  noticed,"  he 
says,  "an  immense  crowd  gathering  in  the 
street  outside  a  newspaper  office.  I  called  the 
attention  of  the  other  operators  to  the  crowd, 
and  we  sent  a  messenger  boy  to  find  the  cause 
of  the  excitement.  He  returned  in  a  few 
minutes  and  shouted,  'Lincoln's  shot!'  In- 
stinctively the  operators  looked  from  one  face 
to  another  to  see  which  man  had  received  the 
news.  All  the  faces  were  blank,  and  every 
man  said  he  had  not  taken  a  word  about  the 
shooting.  'Look  over  your  files,'  said  the 
boss  to  the  man  handling  the  press  stuff.  For 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

a  few  moments  we  waited  in  suspense,  and 
then  the  man  held  up  a  sheet  of  paper  con- 
taining a  short  account  of  the  shooting  of  the 
President.  The  operator  had  worked  so  me- 
chanically that  he  had  handled  the  news  with- 
out the  slightest  realization  of  its  significance." 

Edison's  diversions  in  Cincinnati  were 
characteristic  of  his  life  before  and  since.  He 
read  a  great  deal,  but  spent  most  of  his  leisure 
time  experimenting.  Occasionally  he  would 
indulge  in  some  form  of  amusement,  but  this 
was  not  often.  At  this  time  he  and  Adams 
were  close  friends,  and  Mr.  Adams  remarks: 
"  Edison  and  I  were  fond  of  tragedy.  Forrest 
and  John  McCullough  were  playing  at  the 
National  Theater,  and  when  our  capital  was 
sufficient  we  would  go  to  see  those  eminent 
tragedians  alternate  in  Othello  and  lago. 
Edison  always  enjoyed  Othello  greatly.  Aside 
from  an  occasional  visit  to  the  Loewen  Garten, 
'over  the  R'hine,'  with  a  glass  of  beer  and  a 
few  pretzels  consumed  while  listening  to  the 
excellent  music  of  a  German  band,  the  theater 
was  the  sum  and  substance  of  our  innocent 
dissipation." 

While  Edison  was  in  Cincinnati  there  came 
72 


ADVENTURES 

one  day  a  delegation  of  five  trade-union 
operators  from  Cleveland  to  form  a  local 
branch  in  Cincinnati.  The  occasion  was  one 
of  great  conviviality.  Night  came  and  many 
of  the  operators  were  away.  The  Cleveland 
wire  was  in  special  need,  and  Edison,  almost 
alone  in  the  office,  devoted  himself  to  it  all 
through  the  night  and  until  three  o'clock  next 
morning,  when  he  was  relieved.  He  had  been 
previously  getting  eighty  dollars  a  month, 
and  added  to  this  by  copying  plays  for  a 
theater. 

His  rating  was  that  of  a  "  plug,  "  or  inferior 
operator,  but  having  determined  to  become 
a  first-class  operator,  he  had  kept  up  a  prac- 
tice of  going  to  the  office  at  night  to  take 
"press,"  acting  willingly  as  a  substitute  for 
any  operator  who  wanted  to  get  off  -for  a  few 
hours — which  often  meant  all  night. 

Thus  he  had  been  unconsciously  preparing 
for  the  special  ordeal  which  the  conviviality  of 
the  trade-unionists  had  brought  about. 

Speaking  of  that  night's  work,  Edison  says: 
"  My  copy  looked  fine  if  viewed  as  a  whole,  as  I 
could  write  a  perfectly  straight  line  across  the 
wide  sheet,  which  was  not  ruled.  There  were 

73 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

no  flourishes,  but  the  individual  letters  would 
not  bear  close  inspection.  When  I  missed 
understanding  a  word  there  was  no  time  to 
think  what  it  was,  so  I  made  an  illegible  one 
to  fill  in,  trusting  to  the  printers  to  sense  it. 
I  knew  they  could  read  anything,  although 
Mr.  Bloss,  an  editor  of  the  Inquirer,  made  such 
bad  copy  that  one  of  his  editorials  was  pasted 
up  on  the  notice  board  in  the  telegraph  office 
with  an  offer  of  one  dollar  to  any  man  who 
could  'read  twenty  consecutive  words.'  No- 
body ever  did  it.  When  I  got  through  I  was 
too  nervous  to  go  home,  and  so  I  waited  the 
rest  of  the  night  for  the  day  manager,  Mr. 
Stevens,  to  see  what  was  to  be  the  outcome  of 
this  union  formation  and  of  my  efforts.  He 
was  an  austere  man,  and  I  was  afraid  of  him. 
I  got  the  morning  papers,  which  came  out  at 
4  A.M.,  and  the  press  report  read  perfectly, 
which  surprised  me  greatly.  I  went  to  work 
on  my  regular  day  wire  to  Portsmouth,  Ohio, 
and  there  was  considerable  excitement,  but 
nothing  was  said  to  me,  neither  did  Mr.  Ste- 
vens examine  the  copy  on  the  office  hook, 
which  I  was  watching  with  great  interest. 
However,  about  3  P.M.  he  went  to  the  hook, 

74 


ADVENTURES 

grabbed  the  bunch  and  looked  at  it  as  a  whole 
without  examining  it  in  detail,  for  which  I 
was  thankful.  Then  he  jabbed  it  back  on 
the  hook,  and  I  knew  I  was  all  right.  He 
walked  over  to  me,  and  said:  'Young  man, 
I  want  you  to  work  the  Louisville  wire  nights ; 
your  salary  will  be  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  dollars.'  Thus  I  got  from  the  plug  classi- 
fication to  that  of  a  '  first-class  man.' ' 

Not  long  after  this  promotion  was  secured 
Edison  started  again  on  his  wanderings.  He 
went  south,  while  his  friend  Adams  went 
north,  neither  one  having  any  difficulty  in 
making  the  trip.  He  says:  "The  boys  in 
those  days  had  extraordinary  facilities  for 
travel.  As  a  usual  thing  it  was  only  necessary 
for  them  to  board  a  train  and  tell  the  con- 
ductor they  were  operators.  Then  trjey  could 
go  as  far  as  they  liked.  The  number  of  oper- 
ators was  small,  and  they  were  in  demand 
everywhere." 

Edison's  next  stopping  place  was  Memphis, 
Tennessee,  where  he  got  a  position  as  operator. 
Here  again  he  began  to  invent  and  improve 
on  existing  apparatus,  with  the  result  of  being 
obliged  once  more  to  "move  on."  He  tells 

75 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

the  story  as  follows:  "  I  was  not  the  inventor 
of  the  auto-repeater,  but  while  in  Memphis 
I.  worked  on  one.  Learning  that  the  chief 
operator,  who  was  a  protege  of  the  superin- 
tendent, was  trying  in  some  way  to  put  New 
York  and  New  Orleans  together  for  the  first 
time  since  the  close  of  the  war,  I  redoubled 
my  efforts,  and  at  two  o'clock  one  morning  I 
had  them  speaking  to  each  other.  The  office 
of  the  Memphis  Avalanche  was  in  the  same 
building.  The  paper  got  wind  of  it  and  sent 
messages.  A  column  came  out  in  the  morn- 
ing about  it;  but  when  I  went  to  the  office  in 
the  afternoon  to  report  for  duty  I  was  dis- 
charged without  explanation.  The  super- 
intendent would  not  even  give  me  a  pass  to 
Nashville,  so  I  had  to  pay  my  fare.  I  had  so 
little  money  left  that  I  nearly  starved  at 
Decatur,  Alabama,  and  had  to  stay  three 
days  before  going  on  north  to  Nashville. 
Arrived  in  that  city,  I  went  to  the  telegraph 
office,  got  money  enough  to  buy  a  little  solid 
food,  and  secured  a  pass  to  Louisville.  I  had 
a  companion  with  me  who  was  also  out  of  a 
job.  I  arrived  at  Louisville  on  a  bitterly 
cold  day,  with  ice  in  the  gutters.  I  was 

76 


ADVENTURES 


wearing  a  linen  duster  and  was  not  much  to 
look  at,  but  got  a  position  at  once,  working 
on  a  press  wire.  My  traveling  companion 
was  less  successful  on  account  of  his  'record/ 
They  had  a  limit  even  in  those  days  when  the 
telegraph  service  was  so  demoralized.'* 

After  the  Civil  War  was  over  the  telegraph 
service  was  in  desperate  condition,  and  some 
of  Mr.  Edison's  reminiscences  of  these  times 
are  quite  interesting.  He  says:  "The  tele- 
graph was  still  under  military  control,  not 
having  been  turned  over  to  the  original 
owners,  the  Southern  Telegraph  Company. 
In  addition  to  the  regular  force,  there  was  an 
extra  force  of  two  or  three  operators,  and 
some  stranded  ones,  who  were  a  burden  to  us, 
for  board  was  high.  One  of  these  derelicts 
was  a  great  source  of  worry  to  me  personally. 
He  would  come  in  at  all  hours  and  either 
throw  ink  around  or  make  a  lot  of  noise.  One 
night  he  built  a  fire  in  the  grate  and  started  to 
throw  pistol  cartridges  into  the  flames.  These 
would  explode,  and  I  was  twice  hit  by  the 
bullets,  which  left  a  black-and-blue  mark. 
Another  night  he  came  in  and  got  from  some 
part  of  the  building  a  lot  of  stationery  with 

77 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

'Confederate  States'  printed  at  the  head. 
He  was  a  fine  operator,  and  wrote  a  beautiful 
hand.  He  would  take  a  sheet  of  paper,  write 
capital  'A,'  and  then  take  another  sheet  and 
make  the  'A'  differently;  and  so  on  through 
the  alphabet,  each  time  crumpling  the  paper 
up  in  his  hand  and  throwing  it  on  the  floor. 
He  would  keep  this  up  until  the  room  was 
filled  nearly  flush  with  the  table.  Then  he 
would  quit. 

"  Everything  at  that  time  was  '  wide  open.  * 
Disorganization  reigned  supreme.  There  was 
no  head  to  anything.  At  night  myself  and  a 
companion  would  go  over  to  a  gorgeously 
furnished  faro-bank  and  get  our  midnight 
lunch.  Everything  was  free.  There  were 
over  twenty  keno-rooms  running.  One  of 
them  that  I  visited  was  in  a  Baptist  church, 
the  man  with  the  wheel  being  in  the  pulpit 
and  the  gamblers  in  the  pews. 

''While there,  the  manager  of  the  telegraph 
office  was  arrested  for  something  I  never 
understood,  and  incarcerated  in  a  military 
prison  about  half  a  mile  from  the  office.  The 
building  was  in  plain  sight  from  the  office 
and  four  stories  high.  He  was  kept  strictly 

78 


ADVENTURES 

incomunicado.  One  day,  thinking  he  might 
be  confined  in  a  room  facing  the  office,  I  put 
my  arm  out  of  the  window  and  kept  signaling 
dots  and  dashes  by  the  movement  of  the  arm. 
I  tried  this  several  times  for  two  days.  Finally 
he  noticed  it,  and,  putting  his  arm  through  the 
bars  of  the  window,  he  established  communi- 
cation with  me.  He  thus  sent  several  mes- 
sages to  his  friends,  and  was  afterward  set 
free." 

Another  curious  story  told  by  Edison  con- 
cerns a  fellow  operator  on  night  duty  at 
Chattanooga  Junction  at  the  time  he  was  at 
Memphis:  "  When  it  was  reported  that  Hood 
was  marching  on  Nashville,  one  night  a  Jew 
came  into  the  office  about  eleven  o'clock  in 
great  excitement,  having  heard  the  Hood, 
rumor.  He,  being  a  large  sutler,  wanted  to 
send  a  message  to  save  his  goods.  The  opera- 
tor said  it  was  impossible — that  orders  had 
been  given  to  send  no  private  messages. 
Then  the  Jew  wanted  to  bribe  my  friend,  who 
steadfastly  refused,  for  the  reason,  as  he  told 
the  Jew,  that  he  might  be  court-martialed  and 
shot.  Finally  the  Jew  got  up  to  eight  hundred 
dollars.  The  operator  swore  him  to  secrecy 
6  79 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

and  sent  the  message.  No\fr,  there  was  no 
such  order  about  private  messages,  and  the 
Jew,  finding  it  out,  complained  to  Captain 
Van  Duzer,  chief  of  telegraphs,  who  investi- 
gated the  matter,  and  while  he  would  not 
discharge  the  operator,  laid  him  off  indefi- 
nitely. Van  Duzer  was  so  lenient  that  if  an 
operator  was  to  wait  three  days  and  then  go 
and  sit  on  the  stoop  of  Van  Duzer's  office  all 
day  he  would  be  taken  back.  But  Van 
Duzer  swore  that  if  the  operator  had  taken 
eight  hundred  dollars  and  sent  the  message  at 
the  regular  rate,  which  was  twenty-five  cents, 
it  would  have  been  all  right,  as  the  Jew  would 
be  punished  for  trying  to  bribe  a  military 
operator;  but  when  the  operator  took  the 
eight  hundred  dollars  and  then  sent  the  mes- 
sage deadhead  he  couldn't  stand  it,  and  he 
would  never  relent." 

A  third  typical  story  of  this  period  relates 
to  a  cipher  message  for  General  Thomas.  Mr. 
Edison  narrates  it  as  follows:  "  When  I  was  an 
operator  in  Cincinnati,  working  the  Louisville 
wire  nights  for  a  time,  one  night  a  man  over 
on  the  Pittsburg  wire  yelled  out:  'D.  I. 
cipher/  which  meant  that  there  was  a  cipher 

80 


ADVENTURES 

message  from  the  War  Department  at  Wash- 
ington, and  that  it  was  coming,  and  he  yelled 
out  'Louisville.'  I  started  immediately  to 
call  up  that  place.  It  was  just  at  the  change 
of  shift  in  the  office.  I  could  not  get  Louis- 
ville, and  the  cipher  message  began  to  come. 
It  was  taken  by  the  operator  on  the  other 
table,  direct  from  the  War  Department.  It 
was  for  General  Thomas,  at  Nashville.  I 
called  for  about  twenty  minutes  and  notified 
them  that  I  could  not  get  Louisville.  I  kept 
at  it  for  about  fifteen  minutes  longer,  and 
notified  them  that  there  was  still  no  answer 
from  Louisville.  They  then  notified  the  War 
Department  that  they  could  not  get  Louisville. 
Then  we  tried  to  get  it  by  all  kinds  of  round- 
about ways,  but  in  no  case  could  anybody 
get  them  at  that  office.  Soon  a  message 
came  from  the  War  Department  to  send  im- 
mediately for  the  manager  of  the  Cincinnati 
office.  He  was  brought  to  the  office  and 
several  messages  were  exchanged,  the  con- 
tents of  which,  of  course,  I  did  not  know,  but 
the  matter  appeared  to  be  very  serious,  as 
they  were  afraid  of  General  Hood,  of  the 
Confederate  Army,  who  was  then  attempting 

ft 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

to  march  on  Nashville;  and  it  was  important 
that  this  cipher  of  about  twelve  hundred 
words  or  so  should  be  got  through  immediately 
to  General  Thomas.  I  kept  on  calling  up  to 
twelve  or  one  o'clock,  but  no  Louisville. 
About  one  o'clock  the  operator  at  the  Indian- 
apolis office  got  hold  of  an  operator  who  hap- 
pened to  come  into  his  office,  which  had  a 
wire  which  ran  from  Indianapolis  to  Louis- 
ville along  the  railroad.  He  arranged  with 
this  operator  to  get  a  relay  of  horses,  and  the 
message  was  sent  through  Indianapolis  to 
this  operator,  who  had  engaged  horses  to 
carry  the  despatches  to  Louisville  and  find  out 
the  trouble,  and  get  the  despatches  through 
without  delay  to  General  Thomas.  In  those 
days  the  telegraph  fraternity  was  rather 
demoralized,  and  the  discipline  was  very  lax. 
It  was  found  out  a  couple  of  days  afterward 
that  there  were  three  night  operators  at  Louis- 
ville. One  of  them  had  gone  over  to  Jeffer- 
sonville  and  had  fallen  off  a  horse  and  broken 
his  leg,  and  was  in  a  hospital.  By  a  remark- 
able coincidence  another  of  the  men  had  been 
stabbed  in  a  keno-room,  and  was  also  in  a 
hospital,  while  the  third  operator  had  gone  to 

82 


ADVENTURES 

Cynthiana  to  see  a  man  hanged  and  had  got 
left  by  the  train." 

From  Memphis  Edison  went  to  Louisville. 
Here  he  remained  for  about  two  years.  It 
was  while  he  was  there  that  he  perfected  the 
peculiar  vertical  style  of  writing  which  has 


production  & 

« 

6  VccCx  vcvVu^  dU*ecfr~*4?cm 


since  been  his  characteristic  style.  He  says 
of  this  form  of  writing,  an  example  of  which  is 
given  above:  "I  developed  this  style  in 
Louisville  while  taking  press  reports.  My 
wire  was  connected  to  the  'blind'  side  of  a 
repeater  at  Cincinnati,  so  that  if  I  missed  a 
word  or  sentence,  or  if  the  wire  worked  badly, 
I  could  not  break  in  and  get  the  last  words, 

83 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

because  the  Cincinnati  man  had  no  instru- 
ment by  which  he  could  hear  me.  I  had  to 
take  what  came.  When  I  got  the  job  the 
cable  across  the  Ohio  River  at  Covington, 
connecting  with  the  line  to  Louisville,  had  a 
variable  leak  in  it,  which  caused  the  strength 
of  the  signaling  current  to  make  violent 
fluctuations.  I  obviated  this  by  using  several 
relays,  each  with  a  different  adjustment, 
working  several  sounders  all  connected  with 
one  sounding-plate.  The  clatter  was  bad, 
but  I  could  read  it  with  fair  ease.  When,  in 
addition  to  this  infernal  leak,  the  wires  north 
to  Cleveland  worked  badly  it  required  a 
large  amount  of  imagination  to  get  the  sense 
of  what  was  being  sent.  An  imagination 
requires  an  appreciable  time  for  its  exercise, 
and  as  the  stuff  was  coming  at  the  rate  of 
thirty-five  to  forty  words  a  minute,  it  was 
very  difficult  to  write  down  what  was  coming 
and  imagine  what  wasn't  coming.  Hence  it 
was  necessary  to  become  a  very  rapid  writer, 
so  I  started  to  find  the  fastest  style.  I  found 
that  the  vertical  style,  with  each  letter  sepa- 
rate and  without  any  flourishes,  was  the  most 
rapid,  and  that,  the  smaller  the  letter,  the 

84 


ADVENTURES 

greater  the  rapidity.  As  I  took  on  an  average 
from  eight  to  fifteen  columns  of  news  report 
every  day,  it  did  not  take  long  to  perfect  this 
method." 

The  telegraph  offices  of  those  early  days 
were  very  crude  as  compared  with  the  equip- 
ments of  modern  times.  The  apparatus  was 
generally  in  a  very  poor  condition,  and  the 
wiring  was  of  a  haphazard  kind.  The  con- 
ditions during  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  all 
tended  to  demoralization,  both  of  operators 
and  apparatus. 

Indeed,  the  following  story,  related  by 
Edison,  illustrates  the  lengths  to  which  teleg- 
raphers could  go  at  a  time  when  they  were 
in  so  much  demand:  "  When  I  took  the  posi- 
tion there  was  a  great  shortage  of  operators. 
One  night,  at  2  A.M.,  another  operator  and  I 
were  on  duty.  I  was  taking  press  report,  and 
the  other  man  was  working  the  New  York 
wire.  We  heard  a  heavy  tramp,  tramp,  tramp 
on  the  rickety  stairs.  Suddenly  the  door  was 
thrown  open  with  great  violence,  dislodging  it 
from  one  of  the  hinges.  There  appeared  in 
the  doorway  one  of  the  best  operators  we  had, 
who  worked  daytime,  and  who  was  of  a  very 

85 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

quiet  disposition  except  when  intoxicated. 
He  was  a  great  friend  of  the  manager  of  the 
office.  His  eyes  were  bloodshot  and  wild, 
and  one  sleeve  had  been  torn  away  from  his 
coat.  Without  noticing  either  of  us,  he  went 
up  to  the  stove  and  kicked  it  over.  The 
stovepipe  fell,  dislocated  at  every  joint.  It 
was  half  full  of  exceedingly  fine  soot,  which 
floated  out  and  completely  filled  the  room. 
This  produced  a  momentary  respite  to  his 
labors.  When  the  atmosphere  had  cleared 
sufficiently  to  see  he  went  around  and  pulled 
every  table  away  from  the  wall,  piling  them  on 
top  of  the  stove  in  the  middle  of  the  room. 
Then  he  proceeded  to  pull  the  switchboard 
away  from  the  wall.  It  was  held  tightly  by 
screws.  He  succeeded,  finally,  and  when  it 
gave  way  he  fell  with  the  board,  and,  striking 
on  a  table,  cut  himself  so  that  he  soon  became 
covered,  with  blood.  He  then  went  to  the 
battery-room  and  knocked  all  the  batteries 
off  on  the  floor.  The  nitric  acid  soon  began 
to  combine  with  the  plaster  in  the  room  below, 
which  was  the  public  receiving-room  for  mes- 
sengers and  bookkeepers.  The  excess  acid 
poured  through  and  ate  up  the  account-books. 

86 


ADVENTURES 

After  having  finished  everything  to  his  satis- 
faction, he  left.  I  told  the  other  operators 
to  do  nothing.  We  would  leave  things  just 
as  they  were,  and  wait  until  the  manager 
came.  In  the  mean  time,  as  I  knew  all  the 
wires  coming  through  to  the  switchboard,  I 
rigged  up  a  temporary  set  of  instruments  so 
that  the  New  York  business  could  be  cleared 
up,  and  we  also  got  the  remainder  of  the  press 
matter.  At  seven  o'clock  the  day  men  began 
to  appear.  They  were  told  to  go  down- 
stairs and  await  the  coming  of  the  manager. 
At  eight  o'clock  he  appeared,  walked  around, 
went  into  the  battery-room,  and  then  came  to 
me,  saying:  *  Edison,  who  did  this?'  I  told 
him  that  Billy  L.  had  come  in  full  of  soda- 
water  and  invented  the  ruin  before  him.  He 
walked  back  and  forth  about  a  minute,  then, 
coming  up  to  my  table,  put  his  fist  down, 
and  said:  *  If  Billy  L.  ever  does  that  again  I 
will  discharge  him.'  It  was  needless  to  say 
that  there  were  other  operators  who  took 
advantage  of  that  kind  of  discipline,  and  I  had 
many  calls  at  night  after  that,  but  none  with 
such  destructive  effects." 

Incidents  such  as  these,  together  with  the 
87 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

daily  life  and  work  of  an  operator,  presented 
one  aspect  of  life  to  our  young  operator  in 
Louisville.  But  there  was  another,  more 
intellectual  side,  in  the  contact  afforded  with 
journalism  and  its  leaders,  on  which  Mr.  Edi- 
son looks  back  with  great  satisfaction.  "I 
remember/'  he  says,  "the  discussions  between 
the  celebrated  poet  and  journalist  George  D. 
Prentice,  then  editor  of  the  Courier- Journal, 
and  Mr.  Tyler,  of  the  Associated  Press.  I  be- 
lieve Prentice  was  the  father  of  the  humorous 
paragraph  of  the  American  newspaper.  He 
was  poetic,  highly  educated,  and  a  brilliant 
talker.  He  was  very  thin  and  small.  I  do 
not  think  he  weighed  over  one  hundred  and 
twenty- five  pounds.  Tyler  was  a  graduate 
of  Harvard,  and  had  a  very  clear  enunciation, 
and,  in  sharp  contrast  to  Prentice,  he  was  a 
large  man.  After  the  paper  had  gone  to  press 
Prentice  would  generally  come  over  to  Tyler's 
office,  where  I  heard  them  arguing  on  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  etc.  I  asked  permission 
of  Mr.  Tyler  if,  after  finishing  the  press  matter, 
I  might  come  in  and  listen  to  the  conversation, 
which  I  did  many  times  after.  One  thing  I 
never  could  comprehend  was  that  Tyler  had  a 

88 


ADVENTURES 

sideboard  with  liquors  and  generally  crackers. 
Prentice  would  pour  out  half  a  glass  of  what 
they  call  corn  whisky,  and  would  dip  the 
crackers  in  it  and  eat  them.  Tyler  took  it 
sans  food.  One  teaspoonful  of  that  stuff 
would  put  me  to  sleep." 

Mr.  Edison  throws  also  a  curious  side-light 
on  the  origin  of  the  comic  paragraph  in  the 
modern  American  newspaper,  as  distributed 
instantly  throughout  the  country  through  the 
telegraph.  "It  was  the  practice  of  the  press 
operators  all  over  the  country  at  that  time, 
when  a  lull  occurred,  to  start  in  and  send 
jokes  or  stories  the  day  men  had  collected; 
and  these  were  copied  and  pasted  up  on  the 
bulletin-board.  Cleveland  was  the  originat- 
ing office  for  'press,'  which  it  received  from 
New  York  and  sent  out  simultaneously  to 
Milwaukee,  Chicago,  Toledo,  Detroit,  Pitts- 
burg,  Columbus,  Dayton,  Cincinnati,  Indian- 
apolis, Vincennes,  Terre  Haute,  St.  Louis,  and 
Louisville.  Cleveland  would  call  first  on  Mil- 
waukee and  ask  if  he  had  anything.  If  so,  he 
would  send  it,  and  Cleveland  would  repeat  it 
to  all  of  us.  Thus  any  joke  or  story  originat- 
ing anywhere  in  that  area  was  known  the  next 

89 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

day  all  over.  The  press  men  would  come  in 
and  copy  anything  which  could  be  published, 
which  was  about  three  per  cent.  I  collected, 
too,  quite  a  large  scrap-book  of  it,  but,  un- 
fortunately, I  have  lost  it." 

Edison  was  always  a  great  reader,  and  was 
in  the  habit  of  buying  books  at  auctions  and 
becond-hand  stores.  One  day  at  an  auction 
he  bought  twenty  unbound  volumes  of  the 
North  American  Review  for  two  dollars. 
These  he  had  bound  and  delivered  at  the 
telegraph  office.  One  morning,  about  three 
o'clock,  he  started  off  for  home  at  a  rapid  pace 
with  ten  volumes  on  his  shoulder.  Very  soon 
he  became  conscious  of  the  fact  that  bullets 
were  flying  around  him.  He  stopped,  and  a 
breathless  policeman  came  up  and  seized  him 
as  a  suspicious  character,  ordering  him  to  drop 
his  parcel  and  explain  matters.  Opening  the 
package,  he  showed  the  books,  somewhat  to 
the  disgust  of  the  officer,  who  imagined  he  had 
caught  a  burglar  sneaking  away  with  his  booty. 
Edison  explained  that,  being  deaf,  he  had  heard 
no  challenge,  and  therefore  had  kept  moving; 
and  the  policeman  remarked,  apologetically,  it 
was  well  for  Edison  he  was  not  a  better  shot. 

90 


ADVENTURES 

Through  all  his  travels  Edison  has  pre- 
served these  books,  and  he  has  them  now  in 
his  library  at  Llewelyn  Park,  Orange,  New 
Jersey. 

After  two  years  at  Louisville,  Edison  went 
back  North  as  far  as  Detroit,  but  soon  returned 
to  Louisville.  At  this  time  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  exaggerated  talk  and  report  about  the 
sunny  life  and  easy  wealth  of  South  America. 
This  idea  appealed  especially  to  telegraph 
operators,  and  young  Edison,  with  his  fertile 
imagination,  was  readily  inflamed  with  the 
glowing  idea  of  these  great  possibilities. 

Once  more  he  threw  up  his  work,  and,  with 
a  couple  of  young  friends,  made  his  way  to 
New  Orleans,  where  they  expected  to  catch  a 
specially  chartered  steamer  for  Brazil. 

They  arrived  in  New  Orleans  just  at  the 
time  of  the  great  riot,  when  the  city  was  in  the 
hands  of  a  mob.  The  government  had  seized 
the  steamer  for  carrying  troops.  The  young 
men  therefore  visited  another  shipping  office 
to  make  inquiries  about  vessels  for  Brazil. 

Here  they  got  into  conversation  with  an  old 
Spaniard,  to  whom  they  explained  their  in- 
tentions. He  had  lived  and  worked  in  South 

91 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

America,  and  was  very  emphatic  in  advising 
them  that  the  worst  thing  they  could  do  was 
to  leave  the  United  States,  whose  freedom, 
calm,  and  opportunities  could  not  be  equaled 
anywhere  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  Edison 
took  the  Spaniard's  advice,  and  made  his  way 
North  again.  He  heard  later  that  his  two 
companions  had  gone  to  Vera  Cruz  and  had 
died  there  of  yellow  fever. 

He  returned  to  Louisville  and  resumed 
work  there.  He  seems  to  have  been  fairly 
comfortable  and  happy  at  this  time.  He 
surrounded  himself  with  books  and  various 
apparatus,  and  even  indited  a  treatise  on 
electricity. 

It  is  well  known  that  Edison  is  very  studious 
and  a  great  reader,  but  his  associates  sometimes 
felt  surprised  at  his  fund  of  general  information. 
His  own  words  throw  some  light  upon  this  sub- 
ject:  "  The  second  time  I  was  in  Louisville  the 
Telegraph  Company  had  moved  into  a  new 
office,  and  the  discipline  was  now  good.  I 
took  the  press  job.  In  fact,  I  was  a  very  poor 
sender,  and  therefore  made  the  taking  of  press 
report  a  specialty.  The  newspaper  men  al- 
lowed me  to  come  over,  after  the  paper  went 

92 


ADVENTURES 

to  press,  at  3  A.M.,  and  get  all  the  exchanges 
I  wanted.  These  I  would  take  home  and  lay 
at  the  foot  of  my  bed.  I  never  slept  more 
than  four  or  five  hours,  so  that  I  would  awake 
at  nine  or  ten  and  read  these  papers  until 
dinner-time.  I  thus  kept  posted,  and  knew 
from  their  activity  every  member  of  Congress, 
and  what  committees  they  were  on,  and  all 
about  the  topical  doings,  as  well  as  the  prices 
of  breadstuffs  in  all  the  primary  markets.  I 
was  in  a  much  better  position  than  most 
operators  to  call  on  my  imagination  to  supply 
missing  words  or  sentences,  which  were  fre- 
quent in  those  days  of  old,  rotten  wires, 
badly  insulated,  especially  on  stormy  nights. 
Upon  such  occasions  I  had  to  supply  in  some 
cases  one-fifth  of  the  whole  matter — pure 
guessing — but  I  got  caught  only  once.  There 
had  been  some  kind  of  convention  in  Virginia, 
in  which  John  Minor  Botts  was  the  leading 
figure.  There  was  great  excitement  about  it, 
and  two  votes  had  been  taken  in  the  con- 
vention on  the  two  days.  There  was  no 
doubt  that  the  vote  the  next  day  would  go  a 
certain  way.  A  very  bad  storm  came  up 
about  ten  o'clock,  and  my  wire  worked  badly, 

93 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

and  there  was  a  cessation  of  all  signals ;  then  I 
made  out  the  words '  Minor  Botts.'  The  next 
was  a  New  York  item.  I  filled  in  a  paragraph 
about  the  convention  and  how  the  vote  had 
gone  as  I  was  sure  it  would  go.  But  next 
day  I  learned  that,  instead  of  there  being  a 
vote,  the  convention  had  adjourned  without 
action  until  the  day  after." 

The  insatiable  thirst  for  knowledge  beyond 
known  facts  again  proved  Edison's  undoing. 
Operators  were  strictly  forbidden  to  remove 
instruments  or  to  use  batteries  except  on 
extra  work.  This  rule  did  not  mean  much  to 
Edison,  who  had  access  to  no  other  instru- 
ments except  those  of  the  company.  "I 
went  one  night,"  he  says,  "into  the  battery- 
room  to  obtain  some  sulphuric  acid  for  ex- 
perimenting. The  carboy  tipped  over,  the 
acid  ran  out,  went  through  to  the  manager's 
room  below,  and  ate  up  his  desk  and  all  the 
carpet.  The  next  morning  I  was  summoned 
before  him,  and  told  that  what  the  company 
wanted  was  operators,  not  experimenters. 
I  was  at  liberty  to  take  my  pay  and  get  out." 

Thus  he  was  once  more  thrown  upon  the 
world.  He  went  back  to  Cincinnati,  and  be- 

94 


ADVENTURES 

gan  his  second  term  there  as  an  operator. 
He  was  again  put  on  night  duty,  much  to  his 
satisfaction.  He  rented  a  room  on  the  top 
floor  of  an  office  building,  bought  a  cot  and  an 
oil-stove,  a  foot  lathe,  and  some  tools. 

He  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Sommers, 
superintendent  of  telegraph  of  the  Cincinnati 
&  Indianapolis  Railroad,  who  gave  him  per- 
mission to  take  such  scrap  apparatus  as  he 
might  desire  that  was  of  no,  use  to  the  com- 
pany. 

Edison  and  Sommers  became  very  friendly, 
and  were  congenial  in  many  ways.  Both  of 
them  enjoyed  jokes  of  a  practical  nature,  and 
Edison  relates  one  of  them  as  follows:  " Som- 
mers was  a  very  witty  man,"  he  says,  "and 
fond  of  experimenting.  We  worked  on  a  self- 
adjusting  telegraph  relay,  which  would  have 
been  very  valuable  if  we  could  have  got  it. 
I  soon  became  the  possessor  of  a  second-hand 
Ruhmkorff  induction  coil,  which,  although  it 
would  only  give  a  small  spark,  would  twist 
the  arms  and  clutch  the  hands  of  a  man  so 
that  he  could  not  let  go  of  the  apparatus. 
One  day  we  went  down  to  the  roundhouse 
of  the  Cincinnati  &  Indianapolis  Railroad  and 

7  95 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

connected  up  the  long  wash-tank  in  the  room 
with  the  coil,  one  electrode  being  connected 
to  earth.  Above  this  wash-room  was  a  flat 
roof.  We  bored  a  hole  through  the  roof,  and 
could  see  the  men  as  they  came  in.  The  first 
man  as  he  entered  dipped  his  hands  in  the 
water.  The  floor,  being  wet,  formed  a  circuit, 
and  up  went  his  hands.  He  tried  it  the  second 
time,  with  the  same  result.  He  then  stood 
against  the  wall  with  a  puzzled  expression. 
We  surmised  that  he  was  waiting  for  some- 
body else  to  come  in,  which  occurred  shortly 
after,  with  the  same  result.  Then  they  went 
out,  and  the  place  was  soon  crowded  and 
there  was  considerable  excitement.  Vari- 
ous theories  were  broached  to  explain  the 
curious  phenomenon.  We  enjoyed  the  sport 
immensely." 

The  reader  must  remember  this  occurred 
forty  years  ago,  when  electricity  was  not 
popularly  understood.  Had  it  occurred  to-day 
the  mystery  would  have  soon  been  explained. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  germ  of 
Edison's  quadruplex  originated  while  he  was 
at  the  Cincinnati  office.  There  he  became 
acquainted  with  George  Ellsworth,  a  tele- 

96 


ADVENTURES 

graph  operator  who  left  the  regular  telegraph 
service  to  become  an  operator  for  the  Con- 
federate guerilla  Morgan. 

"We  soon  became  acquainted,"  says  Edi- 
son of  this  period  in  Cincinnati,  "and  he 
wanted  me  to  invent  a  secret  method  of  send- 
ing despatches,  so  that  an  intermediate  opera- 
tor could  not  tap  the  wire  and  understand  it. 
He  said  that  if  it  could  be  accomplished  he 
could  sell  it  to  the  government  for  a  large  sum 
of  money.  This  suited  me,  and  I  started  in 
and  succeeded  in  making  such  an  instrument, 
which  had  in  it  the  germ  of  my  quadruplex 
now  used  throughout  the  world,  permitting 
the  despatch  of  four  messages  over  one  wire 
simultaneously.  By  the  time  I  had  succeeded 
in  getting  the  apparatus  to  work  Ellsworth 
suddenly  disappeared.  Many  years  after- 
ward I  used  this  little  device  again  for  the 
same  purpose.  At  Menlo  Park,  New  Jersey, 
I  had  my  laboratory.  There  were  several 
Western  Union  wires  cut  into  the  laboratory 
and  used  by  me  in  experimenting  at  night. 
One  day  I  sat  near  an  instrument  which  I 
had  left  connected  during  the  night.  I  soon 
found  it  was  a  private  wire  between  New  York 

97 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

and  Philadelphia,  and  I  heard  among  a  lot  of 
stuff  a  message  that  surprised  me.  A  week 
after  that  I  had  occasion  to  go  to  New  York, 
and,  visiting  the  office  of  the  lessee  of  the  wire, 
I  asked  him  if  he  hadn't  sent  such  and  such  a 
message.  The  expression  that  came  over  his 
face  was  a  sight.  He  asked  me  how  I  knew  of 
such  message.  I  told  him  the  circumstances, 
and  suggested  that  he  had  better  cipher  such 
communications,  or  put  on  a  secret  sounder. 
The  result  of  the  interview  was  that  I  installed 
for  him  my  old  Cincinnati  apparatus,  which 
was  used  thereafter  for  many  years." 

Edison's  second  term  in  Cincinnati  was  not 
a  very  long  one.  After  a  while  he  left  and 
went  home  to  Port  Huron,  where  he  stayed  a 
short  time.  He  soon  became  tired  of  com- 
parative idleness  and  communicated  with  his 
old  friend,  Milton  Adams,  who  was  then  work- 
ing in  Boston,  and  whom  he  wished  to  rejoin 
if  he  could  get  work  promptly  in  the  East. 

Edison  himself  gives  the  details  of  this 
eventful  move,  when  he  went  East  to  grow  up 
with  the  new  art  of  electricity.  "  I  had  left 
Louisville  the  second  time,  and  went  home  to 
see  my  parents.  After  stopping  at  home  for 

98 


ADVENTURES 

some  time,  I  got  restless,  and  thought  I  would 
like  to  work  in  the  East.  Knowing  that  a 
former  operator  named  Adams,  who  had 
worked  with  me  in  the  Cincinnati  office,  was  in 
Boston,  I  wrote  him  that  I  wanted  a  job  there. 
He  wrote  back  that  if  I  came  on  immediately 
he  could  get  me  in  the  Western  Union  office. 
I  had  helped  out  the  Grand  Trunk  Railroad 
telegraph  people  by  a  new  device  when  they 
lost  one  of  the  two  submarine  cables  they  had 
across  the  river,  making  the  remaining  cable 
act  just  as  well  for  their  purpose  as  if  they  had 
two.  I  thought  I  was  entitled  to  a  pass, 
which  they  conceded,  and  I  started  for 
Boston.  After  leaving  Toronto  a  terrific 
blizzard  came  up  and  the  train  got  snowed 
under  in  a  cut.  After  staying  there  twenty- 
four  hours,  the  trainmen  made  snow-shoes  of 
fence-rail  splints  and  started  out  to  find  food, 
which  they  did  about  a  half  mile  away.  They 
found  a  roadside  inn,  and  by  means  of  snow- 
shoes  all  the  passengers  were  taken  to  the  inn. 
The  train  reached  Montreal  four  days  late. 
A  number  of  the  passengers  and  myself  went 
to  the  military  headquarters  to  testify  in  favor 
of  a  soldier  who  had  been  two  days  late  in 

99 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

returning  from  a  furlough,  which  was  a  serious 
matter  with  military  people,  I  learned.  We 
willingly  did  this,  for  this  soldier  was  a  great 
story-teller,  and  made  the  time  pass  quickly. 
I  met  here  a  telegraph  operator  named  Stan- 
ton,  who  took  me  to  his  boarding-house,  the 
most  cheerless  I  have  ever  been  in.  Nobody 
got  enough  to  eat;  the  bedclothes  were  too 
short  and  too  thin;  it  was  twenty-eight  de- 
grees below  zero,  and  the  wash-water  was 
frozen  solid.  The  board  was  cheap,  being 
only  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  a  week. 

"Stanton  said  that  the  usual  live-stock 
accompaniment  of  operators'  boarding-houses 
was  absent;  he  thought  the  intense  cold  had 
caused  them  to  hibernate.  Stanton,  when  I 
was  working  in  Cincinnati,  left  his  position 
and  went  out  on  the  Union  Pacific  to  work  at 
Julesburg,  which  was  a  cattle  town  at  that 
time  and  very  tough.  I  remember  seeing  him 
off  on  the  train,  never  expecting  to  meet  him 
again.  Six  months  afterward,  while  working 
press  wire  in  Cincinnati,  about  2  A.M.,  there 
was  flung  into  the  middle  of  the  operating- 
room  a  large  tin  box.  It  made  a  report  like 
a  pistol,  and  we  all  jumped  up  startled.  In 

100 


ADVENTURES  * 


walked  Stanton.  'Gentlemen,'  he  said,  'I 
have  just  returned  from  a  pleasure  trip  to  the 
land  beyond  the  Mississippi.  All  my  wealth 
is  contained  in  my  metallic  traveling-case,  and 
you  are  welcome  to  it.'  The  case  contained 
one  paper  collar.  He  sat  down,  and  I  noticed 
that  he  had  a  woolen  comforter  around  his 
neck,  with  his  coat  buttoned  closely.  The 
night  was  intensely  warm.  He  then  opened 
his  coat  and  revealed  the  fact  that  he  had 
nothing  but  the  bare  skin.  'Gentlemen,' 
said  he,  '  you  see  before  you  an  operator  who 
has  reached  the  limit  of  impecuniosity.' ' 


VIII 

WORK  AND   INVENTION   IN    BOSTON 

WHEN  Milton  Adams  received  Edison's 
letter  from  Port  Huron  he  at  once  went 
over  to  the  Western  Union  office  and  asked  the 
manager,  Mr.  George  F.  Milliken,  if  he  did  not 
want  a  good  operator  from  the  West. 

"What  kind  of  copy  does  he  make?"  was 
the  cautious  response.  Adams  says:  "I 
passed  Edison 's  letter  through  the  window  for 
his  inspection.  Milliken  read  it  and  a  look  of 
surprise  came  over  his  countenance  as  he 
asked  me  if  he  could  take  it  off  the  line  like 
that.  I  said  he  certainly  could,  and  that 
there  was  nobody  who  could  stick  him.  Milli- 
ken said  if  he  was  that  kind  of  an  operator  I 
could  send  for  him;  and  I  wrote  Edison  to 
come  on,  as  I  had  a  job  for  him  in  the  main 
office  of  the  Western  Union/* 

On  reporting  to  Mr.  Milliken  in  Boston, 
Edison  secured  a  "  job"  very  quickly.  As  he 

102 


WORK    IN    BOSTON 

tells  the  story,  he  says:  "The  manager  asked 
me  when  I  was  ready  to  go  to  work.  'Now/ 
I  replied .  I  was  then  told  to  return  at  5 . 3  o  P  .  M . , 
and  punctually  at  that  hour  I  entered  the 
main  operating-room  and  was  introduced  to 
the  night  manager.  The  weather  being  cold, 
and  being  clothed  poorly,  my  peculiar  appear- 
ance caused  much  mirth,  and,  as  I  afterward 
learned,  the  night  operators  had  consulted  to- 
gether how  they  might  'put  up  a  job  on  the 
jay  from  the  woolly  West/  I  was  given  a 
pen  and  assigned  to  the  New  York  No.  i  wire. 
After  waiting  an  hour,  I  was  told  to  come 
over  to  a  special  table  and  take  a  special 
report  for  the  Boston  Herald,  the  conspirators 
having  arranged  to  have  one  of  the  fastest 
senders  in  New  York  send  the  despatch  and 
'salt'  the  new  man.  I  sat  down  unsus- 
piciously at  the  table,  and  the  New  York  man 
started  slowly.  Soon  he  increased  his  speed, 
to  which  I  easily  adapted  my  pace.  This  put 
my  rival  on  his  mettle,  and  he  put  on  his  best 
powers,  which,  however,  were  soon  reached. 
At  this  point  I  happened  to  look  up,  and  saw 
the  operators  all  looking  over  my  shoulder, 
with  their  faces  shining  with  fun  and  excite- 

103 


! 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

ment.  I  knew  then  that  they  were  trying  to 
put  up  a  job  on  me,  but  kept  my  own  counsel. 
The  New  York  man  then  commenced  to  slur 
over  his  words,  running  them  together  and 
sticking  the  signals;  but  I  had  been  used  to 
this  style  of  telegraphy  in  taking  report,  and 
was  not  in  the  least  discomfited.  Finally, 
when  I  thought  the  fun  had  gone  far  enough, 
and  having  about  completed  the  special, 
quietly  opened  the  key  and  remarked,  tele- 
graphically, to  my  New  York  friend,  'Say, 
young  man,  change  off  and  send  with  your 
other  foot/  This  broke  the  New  York  man 
all  up,  and  he  turned  the  job  over  to  another 
man  to  finish. " 

Edison  did  not  devote  his  whole  life  at  this 
time  to  the  routine  work  of  a  telegraph  office. 
His  insatiable  desire  for  knowledge  led  him  to 
study  deeply  the  underlying  principles  of 
electricity  that  made  telegraphy  possible,  and 
he  was  constantly  experimenting  to  improve 
the  apparatus  he  handled  daily,  as  well  as 
pursuing  his  studies  in  chemistry. 

One  day  he  was  more  than  delighted  to 
pick  up  a  complete  set  of  Faraday's  works. 
Mr.  Adams  says  that  when  Edison  brought 

104 


WORK    IN    BOSTON 

home  these  books,  at  4  A.M.,  he  read  steadily 
until  breakfast  time,  and  then  he  remarked, 
enthusiastically,  "  Adams,  I  have  got  so 
much  to  do  and  life  is  so  short  I  am  going  to 
hustle."  And  thereupon  he  started  on  a  run 
for  breakfast.  Edison  himself  says:  "  It  was 
in  Boston  I  bought  Faraday's  works.  I  think 
I  must  have  tried  about  everything  in  those 
books.  His  explanations  were  simple.  He 
used  no  mathematics.  He  was  the  master 
experimenter.  I  don't  think  there  were  many 
copies  of  Faraday's  works  sold  in  those  days. 
The  only  people  who  did  anything  in  electric- 
ity were  the  telegraphers  and  the  opticians, 
making  simple  school  apparatus  to  demon- 
strate the  principles." 

At  this  time  there  was  a  number  of  practical 
investigators  and  electrical  workers  iri  Boston, 
and  Edison  with  his  congenial  tastes  soon 
became  very  much  at  home  with  them.  He 
spent  a  great  deal  of  time  among  them,  and 
especially  in  the  electrical  workshop  of  the 
late  Charles  Williams,  who  afterward  became 
an  associate  of  Alexander  Graham  Bell. 

It  was  in  this  workshop  that  Edison  worked 
out  into  an  operative  model  his  first  patented 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

invention,  a  vote  recorder.  This  forms  the 
subject  of  Edison's  first  patent,  for  which 
application  was  signed  on  October  n,  1868, 
the  patent  itself  being  taken  out  June  i,  1869, 
No.  90,646. 

The  purpose  of  this  particular  device  was  to 
permit  a  vote  in  the  National  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives to  be  taken  in  a  minute  or  so. 
Edison  took  the  vote  recorder  to  Washington 
and  exhibited  it  before  a  committee.  In 
recalling  the  circumstance,  he  says:  "The 
chairman  of  the  committee,  after  seeing  how 
quickly  and  perfectly  it  worked,  said :  '  Young 
man,  if  there  is  any  invention  on  earth  that 
we  don't  want  down  here  it  is  this.  One  of 
the  greatest  weapons  in  the  hands  of  a  minor- 
ity to  prevent  bad  legislation  is  filibustering 
on  votes,  and  this  instrument  would  prevent 
it.'  I  saw  the  truth  of  this,  because  as  press 
operator  I  had  taken  miles  of  Congressional 
proceedings,  and  to  this  day  an  enormous 
amount  of  time  is  wasted  during  each  session 
of  the  House  in  foolishly  calling  the  members' 
names  and  recording,  and  then  adding,  their 
votes,  when  the  whole  operation  could  be 
done  in  almost  a  moment  by  merely  pressing 

1 06 


WORK    IN    BOSTON 

a  particular  button  at  each  desk.  For  fili- 
bustering purposes,  however,  the  present 
methods  are  most  admirable." 

The  outcome  of  this  exhibition  was  a  great 
disappointment  to  the  young  inventor,  but  it 
proved  to  be  a  wholesome  lesson,  for  he  deter- 
mined from  that  time  forth  to  devote  his  in- 
ventive faculties  only  to  things  for  which 
there  was  a  real,  genuine  demand.  We  shall 
see  later  that  he  has  ever  since  lived  up  to  the 
decision  then  made. 

After  the  above  incident  Edison,  with  in- 
creased earnestness,  resumed  his  study  of 
electricity,  especially  in  its  application  to 
telegraphy.  He  did  not  neglect  his  chemistry, 
however,  but  indulged  his  tastes  freely  in  that 
direction,  thus  laying  the  foundation  for  the 
remarkable  chemical  knowledge  that*  enabled 
him  later  to  make  some  of  his  great  inventions. 

He  tells  an  amusing  incident  of  one  of  his 
chemical  experiments  of  this  early  period: 
41 1  had  read  in  a  scientific  paper  the  method 
of  making  nitroglycerin,  and  was  so  fired  by 
the  wonderful  properties  it  was  said  to  possess 
that  I  determined  to  make  some  of  the  com- 
pound. We  tested  what  we  considered  a  very 

107 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

small  quantity,  but  this  produced  such  ter- 
rible and  unexpected  results  that  we  became 
alarmed,  the  fact  dawning  upon  us  that  we 
had  a  very  large  white  elephant  in  our  posses- 
sion. At  6  A.M.  I  put  the  explosive  into  a 
sarsaparilla  bottle,  tied  a  string  to  it,  wrapped 
it  in  a  paper,  and  gently  let  it  down  into  the 
sewer  at  the  corner  of  State  and  Washington 
Streets. " 

The  daily  routine  of  a  telegraph  office  and 
the  busy  hours  of  reading  and  experimenting 
employed  Edison's  time  for  eighteen  to  twenty 
hours  a  day.  Life,  however,  was  never  too 
strenuous  for  him  to  indulge  his  humor,  espe- 
cially if  it  called  for  the  exercise  of  some  in- 
genuity, as  shown  in  the  following  incident 
related  by  him :  "  The  office  was  on  the  ground 
floor,  and  had  been  a  restaurant  previous  to 
its  occupation  by  the  Western  Union  Tele- 
graph Company.  It  was  literally  loaded  with 
cockroaches,  which  lived  between  the  wall 
and  the  board  running  around  the  room  at  the 
floor,  and  which  came  after  the  lunch.  These 
were  such  a  bother  on  my  table  that  I  pasted 
two  strips  of  tin-foil  on  the  wall  at  my  desk, 
connecting  one  piece  to  the  positive  pole  of  the 


WORK    IN    BOSTON 

big  battery  supplying  current  to  the  wires  and 
the  negative  pole  to  the  other  strip.  The 
cockroaches  moving  up  on  the  wall  would 
pass  over  the  strips.  The  moment  they  got 
their  legs  across  both  strips  there  was  a  flash 
of  light  and  the  cockroaches  went  into  gas. 
This  automatic  electrocuting  device  got  half  a 
column  in  an  evening  paper,  and  attracted  so 
much  attention  that  the  manager  made  me 
stop  it." 

About  this  time  an  innocent  use  of  his 
chemical  knowledge   gave  Edison   a   narrow 
escape  from  injury  which  might  have  shor- 
tened his  career.     He  tells  the  story  as  follows : 
"After  being  in  Boston  several  months,  work- 
ing New  York  wire  No.  i,  I  was  requested  to 
work  the  press  wire,  called  the  'milk  route/ 
as  there  were  so  many  towns  on  it  taking 
press  simultaneously.     New  York  office  had 
reported  great  delays  on  the  wire,   due  to 
'all     operators  constantly  interrupting,  or  'break- 
Je     ing,'  as  it  was  called,  to  have  words  repeated 
which  they  had  failed  to  get;  and  New  York 
$    claimed  that  Boston  was  one  of  the  worst 
st     offenders.     It  was  a  rather  hard  position  for 

Ime,  for  if  I  took  the  report  without  breaking, 
7 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

it  would  prove  the  previous  Boston  operator 
incompetent.  The  results  made  the  operator 
have  some  hard  feelings  against  me.  He  was 
put  back  on  the  wire,  and  did  much  better 
after  that.  It  seems  that  the  office  boy  was 
down  on  this  man.  One  night  he  asked  me  if 
I  could  tell  him  how  to  fix  a  key  so  that  it 
would  not  '  break, '  even  if  the  circuit-breaker 
was  open,  and  also  so  that  it  could  not  be 
easily  detected.  I  told  him  to  jab  a  penful  of 
ink  on  the  platinum  points,  as  there  was  sugar 
enough  in  it  to  make  it  sufficiently  thick  to 
hold  up  when  the  operator  tried  to  break — the 
current  still  going  through  the  ink,  so  that  he 
could  not  break. 

"The  next  night  about  i  A.M.  this  operator, 
on  the  press  wire,  while  I  was  standing  near  a 
House  printer  studying  it,  pulled  out  a  glass 
insulator,  then  used  upside  down  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  an  ink-bottle,  and  threw  it  with 
great  violence  at  me,  just  missing  my  head. 
It  would  certainly  have  killed  me  if  it  had  not 
missed.  The  cause  of  the  trouble  was  that 
this  operator  was  doing  the  best  he  could  not 
to  break,  but,  being  compelled  to  open  his 
key,  he  found  he  couldn't.  The  press  matter 

no 


WORK    IN    BOSTON 

came  right  along,  and  he  could  not  stop  it. 
The  office  boy  had  put  the  ink  in  a  few  minutes 
before,  when  the  operator  had  turned  his  head 
during  a  lull.  He  blamed  me  instinctively 
as  the  cause  of  the  trouble.  Later  we  became 
good  friends.  He  took  his  meals  at  the  same 
'emaciator'  that  I  did.  His  main  object  in 
life  seemed  to  be  acquiring  the  art  of  throwing 
up  wash-pitchers  and  catching  them  without 
breaking  them.  About  a  third  of  his  salary 
was  used  up  in  paying  for  pitchers." 

One  of  the  most  amusing  incidents  of  Edi- 
son's life  in  Boston,  occurred  through  a  re- 
quest  received  at  the  Western  Union  office  one 
day  from  the  principal  of  a  select  school  for 
young  ladies.  The  principal  desired  to  have 
some  one  sent  up  to  the  school  to  exhibit  and 
describe  the  Morse  telegraph  to  her  "chil- 
dren." 

Edison,  who  was  always  ready  to  earn  some 
extra  money  for  his  experiments,  and  was  al- 
ready known  as  the  best-informed  operator  in 
the  office,  accepted  the  task,  inviting  Adams 
to  accompany  him.  What  happened  is  de- 
scribed by  Adams  as  follows:  "We  gathered 
up  a  couple  of  sounders,  a  battery,  and  some 
8  in 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

wire,  and  at  the  appointed  time  called  on  her 
to  do  the  stunt.  Her  school-room  was  about 
twenty  by  twenty  feet,  not  including  a  small 
platform.  We  rigged  up  the  line  between  the 
two  ends  of  the  room,  Edison  taking  the  stage, 
while  I  was  at  the  other  end  of  the  room. 
All  being  in  readiness,  the  principal  was  told 
to  bring  in  her  children.  The  door  opened,  and 
in  came  about  twenty  young  ladies  elegantly 
gowned,  not  one  of  whom  was  under  seven- 
teen. When  Edison  saw  them  I  thought  he 
would  faint.  He  called  me  on  the  line  and 
asked  me  to  come  to  the  stage  and  explain  the 
mysteries  of  the  Morse  system.  I  replied  that 
I  thought  he  was  in  the  right  place,  and  told 
him  to  get  busy  with  his  talk  on  dots  and 
dashes.  Always  modest,  Edison  was  so  over- 
come he  could  hardly  speak,  but  he  managed 
to  say  finally  that,  as  his  friend,  Mr.  Adams, 
was  better  equipped  with  cheek  than  he  was, 
we  would  change  places,  and  he  would  do  the 
demonstrating  while  I  explained  the  whole 
thing.  This  caused  the  bevy  to  turn  to  see 
where  the  lecturer  was.  I  went  on  the  stage, 
said  something,  and  we  did  some  telegfaphing 
over  the  line.  I  guess  it  was  satisfactory ;  we 

112 


WORK    IN    BOSTON 

got  the  money,  which  was  the  main  point  to 


us." 


Edison  tells  the  story  in  a  similar  manner, 
but  insists  that  it  was  he  who  saved  the  situa- 
tion. "  I  managed  to  say  that  I  would  work 
the  apparatus,  and  Mr.  Adams  would  make 
the  explanations.  Adams  was  so  embarrassed 
that  he  fell  over  an  ottoman.  The  girls 
tittered,  and  this  increased  his  embarrassment 
until  he  couldn't  say  a  word.  The  situation 
was  so  desperate  that  for  a  reason  I  never 
could  explain  I  started  in  myself  and  talked 
and  explained  better  than  I  ever  did  before  or 
since.  I  can  talk  to  two  or  three  persons, 
but  when  there  are  more  they  radiate  some 
unknown  form  of  influence  which  paralyzes 
my  vocal  cords.  However,  I  got  out  of  this 
scrape,  and  many  times  afterward,  when  I 
chanced  with  other  operators  to  meet  some  of 
the  young  ladies  on  their  way  home  from 
school  they  would  smile  and  nod,  much  to 
the  mystification  of  the  operators,  who  were 
ignorant  of  this  episode." 

The  purchase  of  supplies  and  apparatus 
for  his  constant  experiments  and  studies  kept 
Edison's  pocket-money  at  low  ebb.  He  never 

*« 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

had  a  surplus  of  cash,  and  tells  this  amusing 
story  of  those  impecunious  days : 

"My  friend  Adams  was  working  in  the 
Franklin  Telegraph  Company,  which  com- 
peted with  the  Western  Union.  Adams  was 
laid  off,  and  as  his  financial  resources  had 
reached  absolute  zero  centigrade,  I  under- 
took to  let  him  sleep  in  my  hall  bedroom. 
I  generally  had  hall  bedrooms,  because  they 
were  cheap  and  I  needed  money  to  buy 
apparatus.  I  also  had  the  pleasure  of  his 
genial  company  at  the  boarding-house  about 
a  mile  distant,  but  at  the  sacrifice  of  some 
apparatus.  One  morning,  as  we  were  hasten- 
ing to  breakfast,  we  came  into  Tremont  Row, 
and  saw  a  large  crowd  in  front  of  two  small 
'gents"  furnishing  goods  stores.  We  stopped 
to  ascertain  the  cause  of  the  excitement.  One 
store  put  up  a  paper  sign  in  the  display  win- 
dow which  said,  *  Three  hundred  pairs  of 
stockings  received  this  day,  five  cents  a  pair — 
no  connection  with  the  store  next  door/ 
Presently  the  other  store  put  up  a  sign  stat- 
ing they  had  received  three  hundred  pairs, 
price  three  cents  a  pair,  also  that  they  had 
no  connection  with  the  store  next  door.  No- 

114 


WORK    IN    BOSTON 

body  went  in.  The  crowd  kept  increasing. 
Finally,  when  the  price  had  reached  three 
pairs  for  one  cent,  Adams  said  to  me:  'I 
can't  stand  this  any  longer;  give  me  a 
cent.'  I  gave  him  a  cent,  and  he  elbowed 
his  way  in;  and  throwing  the  money  on  the 
counter,  the  store  being  filled  with  women 
clerks,  he  said,  'Give  me  three  pairs/  The 
crowd  was  breathless,  and  the  girl  took  down 
a  box  and  drew  out  three  pairs  of  baby  socks. 
'Oh !'  said  Adams, '  I  want  men's  size. '  '  Well, 
sir,  we  do  not  permit  one  to  pick  sizes  for 
that  amount  of  money/  (And  the  crowd 
roared,  and  this  broke  up  the  sales." 

During  Edison's  first  stay  in  Boston  he 
began  to  weary  of  the  monotonous  routine  of 
a  telegraph  operator's  life  and  took  steps  to 
establish  himself  in  an  independent  -business. 
It  was  at  this  point  that  he  began  his  career  as 
an  inventor. 

He  says:  "After  the  vote  recorder  I  in- 
vented a  stock  ticker,  and  started  a  ticker 
service  in  Boston,  had  thirty  or  forty  sub- 
scribers, and  operated  from  a  room  over  the 
Gold  Exchange.  This  was  about  a  year  after 
Callahan  started  in  New  York." 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

It  has  been  generally  supposed  that  Edison 
did  not  take  up  stock  ticker  work  until  he  left 
Boston  finally  and  went  to  New  York  in  1869. 
But  the  above  shows  that  he  actually  started 
a  ticker  service  in  Boston  in  1868. 

The  stock  ticker  had  been  invented  about 
a  year  before,  1867,  by  E.  A.  Callahan,  and 
had  then  been  introduced  into  service  in  New 
York.  Its  success  was  immediate,  and  it  be- 
came the  common  ambition  of  every  operator 
to  invent  a  new  ticker,  as  there  seemed  to  be  a 
promise  of  great  wealth  in  this  direction. 
Edison,  however,  was  about  the  only  one  in 
Boston  who  seems  to  have  achieved  any  tangi- 
ble result. 

This  was  not  by  any  means  all  the  practical 
work  he  did  in  Boston  at  this  time,  as  we  learn 
from  his  own  words.  He  says:  "I  also  en- 
gaged in  putting  up  private  lines,  upon  which 
I  used  an  alphabetical  dial  instrument  for 
telegraphing  between  business  establishments, 
a  forerunner  of  modern  telephony.  This 
instrument  was  very  simple  and  practical, 
and  any  one  could  work  it  after  a  few  minutes' 
explanation.  I  had  these  instruments  made 
at  Mr.  Hamblet's,  who  had  a  little  shop  where 

116 


WORK    IN    BOSTON 

he  was  engaged  in  experimenting  with  electric 
clocks.  Mr.  Hamblet  was  the  father  and 
introducer  in  after  years  of  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  system  of  time  distribution.  My 
laboratory  was  the  headquarters  for  the  men, 
and  also  of  tools  and  supplies  for  those  private 
lines.  They  were  put  up  cheaply,  as  I  used 
the  roofs  of  houses,  just  as  the  Western  Union 
did.  It  never  occurred  to  me  to  ask  per- 
mission from  the  owners;  all  we  did  was  to  go 
to  the  store,  etc.,  say  we  were  telegraph  men, 
and  wanted  to  go  up  to  the  wires  on  the  roof; 
and  permission  was  always  granted. 

"  In  this  laboratory  I  had  a  large  induction 
coil  which  I  had  borrowed  to  make  some 
experiments  with.  One  day  I  got  hold  of 
both  electrodes  of  the  coil,  and  it  clinched 
my  hands  on  them  so  that  I  couldn't  let  go. 
The  battery  was  on  a  shelf.  The  only  way  I 
could  get  free  was  to  back  off  and  pull  the 
coil,  so  that  the  battery  wires  would  pull  the 
cells  off  the  shelf  and  thus  break  the  circuit. 
I  shut  my  eyes  and  pulled,  but  the  nitric  acid 
splashed  all  over  my  face  and  ran  down  my 
back.  I  rushed  to  a  sink,  which  was  only 
half  big  enough,  and  got  in  as  well  as  I  could 

117 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

and  wiggled  around  for  several  minutes  to 
permit  the  water  to  dilute  the  acid  and  stop 
the  pain.  My  face  and  back  were  streaked 
with  yellow;  the  skin  was  thoroughly  oxi- 
dized. I  did  not  go  on  the  street  by  daylight 
for  two  weeks,  as  the  appearance  of  my  face 
was  dreadful.  The  skin,  however,  peeled  off, 
and  new  skin  replaced  it  without  any  damage." 

With  all  the  practical  work  he  was  now 
doing,  Boston  seemed  to  be  too  limited  a 
sphere,  and  Edison  longed  for  the  greater 
opportunities  of  New  York.  His  friend 
Adams  went  West  to  continue  a  life  of  roving 
and  adventure,  but  the  serious-minded  Edison 
had  had  more  than  enough  of  aimless  roaming, 
and  had  determined  to  forge  ahead  on  the 
lines  on  which  he  was  working. 

Realizing  that  he  must  look  to  New  York 
to  better  his  fortunes,  Edison,  deep  in  debt 
for  his  new  inventions,  but  with  high  hope  and 
courage,  now  made  the  next  momentous  step 
in  his  career. 


IX 

FROM  POVERTY  TO  INDEPENDENCE 

EDISON  came  first  to  New  York  in  1868, 
with  his  early  stock  printer,  which  he 
tried  unsuccessfully  to  sell.  He  went  back  to 
Boston,  and,  quite  undismayed,  got  up  a 
duplex  telegraph.  "Toward  the  end  of  my 
stay  in  Boston,"  he  says,  "  I  obtained  a  loan  of 
money,  amounting  to  eight  hundred  dollars, 
to  build  up  a  peculiar  kind  of  duplex  tele- 
graph for  sending  two  messages  over  a  single 
wire  simultaneously.  The  apparatus  was 
built,  and  I  left  the  Western  Union  employ 
and  went  to  Rochester,  New  York,  to  test 
the  apparatus  on  the  lines  of  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  Telegraph  between  that  city  and  New 
York.  But  the  assistant  at  the  other  end 
could  not  be  made  to  understand  anything, 
notwithstanding  I  had  written  out  a  very 
minute  description  of  just  what  to  do.  After 
trying  for  a  week  I  gave  it  up  and  returned 

119 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

to  New  York  with  but  a  few  cents  in  my 
pocket." 

No  one  could  have  been  in  direr  poverty 
than  Edison  when  the  steamboat  landed  him 
in  New  York  in  1869.  He  was  in  debt,  and 
his  few  belongings  in  books  and  instruments 
had  to  be  left  behind.  He  was  not  far  from 
starving. 

After  leaving  the  boat  his  first  thought  was 
for  breakfast;  but  he  was  without  money  to 
obtain  it.  He  walked  the  streets,  and  in  pass- 
ing a  wholesale  tea  house  saw  a  man  "  tasting  " 
tea,  so  he  went  in  and  asked  the  " taster"  if 
he  might  have  some  tea.  His  request  was 
granted,  and  this  was  his  first  breakfast  in 
New  York. 

He  knew  a  telegraph  operator  in  the  city, 
and  in  the  course  of  the  day  succeeded  in  find- 
ing him,  but  he  also  was  out  of  work,  and  the 
best  he  could  do  was  to  lend  Edison  one 
dollar. 

By  this  time  Edison  was  extremely  hungry, 
and  he  gave  most  serious  consideration  as  to 
what  he  should  buy  in  the  way  of  food  that 
would  be  most  satisfying.  He  finally  decided 
upon  apple  dumplings  and  coffee,  which  he 

I2O 


INDEPENDENCE 

obtained  at  Smith  &  McNeil's  restaurant.  He 
says  he  never  ate  anything  more  appetizing. 

He  applied  to  the  Western  Union  Company 
for  a  position  as  operator,  but  as  there  was  no 
immediate  vacancy  he  was  obliged  to  wait 
for  an  opening.  Having  only  the  remainder 
of  the  borrowed  dollar,  he  did  not  want  to 
spend  it  for  lodging,  so  he  got  permission  to 
stay  overnight  in  the  battery-room  of  the 
Gold  Indicator  Company.  Thus  he  kept 
what  little  change  he  had  to  buy  food.  / 

This  was  four  years  after  the  Civil  War, 
but  its  effects  were  felt  everywhere,  and 
notably  in  the  depreciation  of  government 
securities  and  our  paper  money.  Gold,  being 
the  standard,  was  regarded  as  much  more 
valuable  than  a  paper  promise  to  pay  issued 
by  a  government  heavily  in  debt.*  A  gold 
dollar,  therefore,  would  buy  much  more  than 
a  paper  dollar,  at  times  a  dollar  and  a  quarter, 
or  a  dollar  and  a  half  in  value.  In  a  word, 
gold  commanded  a  high  premium.  For  sev- 
eral years  afterward  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
speculation  in  the  precious  metal,  and  a  "  Gold 
Room"  had  been  established  in  Wall  Street, 
where  the  transactions  took  place.  At  first 

121 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

the  prices  were  exhibited  on  a  blackboard 
there,  but  before  long  this  plan  was  found  to 
be  too  slow  for  the  brokers.  Then  Dr.  S.  S. 
Laws,  vice  president  and  presiding  officer  of 
the  Gold  Exchange,  invented  a  system  of 
indicators  to  be  placed  in  the  offices  of  brokers. 
These  indicators  were  operated  from  a  com- 
plicated transmitting  instrument  at  the  Ex- 
change, and  each  one  showed  the  fluctuations 
of  price  as  transactions  took  place.  Dr.  Laws 
resigned  from  the  Exchange  and  organized  the 
Gold  Indicator  Company,  which  put  the  sys- 
tem into  operation. 

At  the  time  when  Edison  took  shelter  at 
night  in  the  battery-room  of  the  company 
there  were  about  three  hundred  instruments 
in  the  offices  of  subscribers.  While  waiting 
to  hear  from  the  Western  Union,  Edison 
spent  his  days  studying  the  indicators  and  the 
complicated  transmitting  instrument  in  the 
office,  controlled  from  the  keyboard  of  the 
operator  on  the  floor  of  the  Gold  Exchange. 

What  happened  next  has  been  the  basis  of 
many  inaccurate  stories,  but  the  following  is 
Mr.  Edison's  own  version:  " On  the  third  day 
of  my  arrival,  and  while  sitting  in  the  office, 


122 


INDEPENDENCE 

the  complicated  general  instrument  for  send- 
ing on  all  the  lines,  and  which  made  a  very 
great  noise,  suddenly  came  to  a  stop  with  a 
crash.  Within  two  minutes  over  three  hun- 
dred boys — a  boy  from  every  broker  in  the 
street — rushed  up-stairs  and  crowded  the  long 
aisle  and  office,  that  hardly  had  room  for  one 
hundred,  all  yelling  that  such  and  such  a 
broker's  wire  was  out  of  order  and  to  fix  it  at 
once.  It  was  pandemonium,  and  the  man 
in  charge  became  so  excited  that  he  lost  con- 
trol of  all  the  knowledge  he  ever  had.  I  went 
to  the  indicator,  and,  having  studied  it  thor- 
oughly, knew  where  the  trouble  ought  to  be, 
and  found  it.  One  of  the  innumerable  con- 
tact springs  had  broken  off  and  had  fallen 
down  between  the  two  gear-wheels  and 
stopped  the  instrument ;  but  it  was  not  very 
noticeable.  As  I  went  out  to  tell  the  man  in 
charge  what  the  matter  was  Dr.  Laws  ap- 
peared on  the  scene,  the  most  excited  person 
I  had  seen.  He  demanded  of  the  man  the 
cause  of  the  trouble,  but  the  man  was  speech- 
less. I  ventured  to  say  that  I  knew  what  the 
trouble  was,  and  he  said,  'Fix  it!  Fix  it! 
Be  quick!'  I  removed  the  spring  and  set  the 

123 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

contact  wheels  at  zero;  and  the  line,  battery, 
and  inspecting  men  all  scattered  through  the 
financial  district  to  set  the  instruments.  In 
about  two  hours  things  were  working  again. 
Dr.  Laws  came  in  to  ask  my  name  and  what  I 
was  doing.  I  told  him,  and  he  asked  me  to 
come  to  his  private  office  the  following  day. 
His  office  was  filled  with  stacks  of  books  all 
relating  to  metaphysics  and  kindred  matters. 
He  asked  me  a  great  many  questions  about 
the  instruments  and  his  system,  and  I  showed 
him  how  he  could  simplify  things  generally. 
He  then  requested  that  I  should  call  next 
day.  On  arrival,  he  stated  at  once  that  he 
had  decided  to  put  me  in  charge  of  the  whole 
plant,  and  that  my  salary  would  be  three 
hundred  dollars  a  month!  This  was  such  a 
violent  jump  from  anything  I  had  ever  had 
before  that  it  rather  paralyzed  me  for  a  while. 
I  thought  it  was  too  much  to  be  lasting;  but 
I  determined  to  try  and  live  up  to  that  salary 
if  twenty  hours  a  day  of  hard  work  would  do 
it.  I  kept  this  position,  made  many  improve- 
ments, decked  several  stock  tickers,  until  the 
Gold  and  Stock  Telegraph  Company  consoli- 
(Jate4  with  the  Gold  Indicator  Company." 

If* 


INDEPENDENCE 

Certainly  few  changes  in  fortune  have  been 
more  sudden  and  dramatic  in  any  notable 
career  than  this  which  thus  placed  an  ill-clad, 
unkempt,  half -starved,  eager  lad  in  a  position 
of  such  responsibility  in  days  when  the  fluctua- 
tions in  the  price  of  gold  at  every  instant 
meant  fortune  or  ruin  to  thousands. 

There  was  at  this  time  a  very  active  period 
of  speculation,  and  not  a  great  while  after- 
ward came  the  attempt  of  Jay  Gould  and  his 
associates  to  corner  the  gold  market  by  buying 
all  the  available  supply.  This  brought  about 
the  panic  of  Black  Friday,  September  24, 
1869. 

Edison,  then  but  twenty-two  years  old, 
was  a  keen  observer,  and  his  recollection  of 
this  episode  is  interesting.  "On  Black  Fri- 
day,'* he  says,  "we  had  a  very  exciting  time 
with  the  indicators.  The  Gould  and  Fisk 
crowd  had  cornered  gold,  and  had  run  the 
quotations  up  faster  than  the  indicator  could 
follow.  The  indicator  was  composed  of  several 
wheels;  on  the  circumference  of  each  wheel 
were  the  numerals;  and  one  wheel  had  frac- 
tions. It  worked  in  the  same  way  as  an 
ordinary  counter;  one  wheel  made  ten  revolu- 

125 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

tions,  and  at  the  tenth  it  advanced  the  adja- 
cent wheel;  and  this,  in  its  turn  having  gone 
ten  revolutions,  advanced  the  next  wheel,  and 
so  on.  On  the  morning  of  Black  Friday 
the  indicator  was  quoting  one  hundred  and 
fifty  premium,  whereas  the  bids  by  Gould's 
agents  in  the  Gold  Room  were  one  hundred 
and  sixty-five  for  five  millions  or  any  part. 
We  had  a  paper-weight  at  the  transmitter 
(to  speed  it  up),  and  by  one  o'clock  reached 
the  right  quotation.  The  excitement  was 
prodigious.  New  Street,  as  well  as  Broad 
Street,  was  jammed  with  excited  people. 
I  sat  on  the  top  of  the  Western  Union  tele- 
graph booth  to  watch  the  surging,  crazy 
crowd.  One  man  came  to  the  booth,  grabbed 
a  pencil,  and  attempted  to  write  a  message 
to  Boston.  The  first  stroke  went  clear  off 
the  blank;  he  was  so  excited  that  he  had  the 
operator  write  the  message  for  him.  Amid 
great  excitement  Speyer,  the  banker,  went 
crazy,  and  it  took  five  men  to  hold  him;  and 
everybody  lost  their  heads.  The  Western 
Union  operator  came  to  me  and  said :  *  Shake, 
Edison,  we  are  O.  K.  We  haven't  got  a  cent.' 
I  felt  very  happy  because  we  were  poor. 

126 


INDEPENDENCE 

These  occasions  are  very  enjoyable  to  a  poor 
man;  but  they  occur  rarely." 

Edison  in  those  days  rather  liked  the 
modest  coffee-shops  and  mentions  visiting 
one.  "When  on  the  New  York  No.  i  ,wire 
that  I  worked  in  Boston  there  was  an  operator 
named  Jerry  Borst  at  the  other  end.  He 
was  a  first-class  receiver  and  rapid  sender. 
We  made  up  a  scheme  to  hold  this  wire,  so  he 
changed  one  letter  of  the  alphabet  and  I  soon 
got  used  to  it;  and  finally  we  changed  three 
letters.  If  any  operator  tried  to  receive  from 
Borst  he  couldn't  do  it,  so  Borst  and  I  always 
worked  together.  Borst  did  less  talking  than 
any  operator  I  ever  knew.  Never  having 
seen  him,  I  went,  while  in  New  York,  to  call 
upon  him.  I  did  all  the  talking.  He  would 
listen,  stroke  his  beard,  and  say  nothing.  In 
the  evening  I  went  over  to  an  all-night  lunch- 
house  in  Printing  House  Square,  in  a  base- 
ment— Oliver's.  Night  editors,  including 
Horace  Greeley,  and  Henry  Raymond,  of  the 
New  York  Times,  took  their  midnight  lunch 
there.  When  I  went  with  Borst  and  another 
operator  they  pointed  out  two  or  three  men 
who  were  then  celebrated  in  the  newspaper 

9  127 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

world.  The  night  was  intensely  hot  and 
close.  After  getting  our  lunch  and  upon 
reaching  the  sidewalk,  Borst  opened  his 
mouth,  and  said:  'That's  a  great  place;  a 
plate  of  cakes,  a  cup  of  coffee,  and  a  Russian 
bath  for  ten  cents/  This  was  about  fifty 
per  cent,  of  his  conversation  for  two  days." 

The  work  of  Edison  on  the  gold  indicator 
had  thrown  him  into  close  relationship  with 
Mr.  Franklin  L.  Pope,  a  young  telegraph 
engineer,  and  afterward  a  distinguished  ex- 
pert and  technical  writer.  Each  recognized 
the  special  ability  of  the  other,  and  barely  a 
week  after  Black  Friday  the  announcement 
of  their  partnership  appeared  in  the  Teleg- 
rapher of  October  i,  1869. 

This  was  the  first  " professional  card,"  if  it 
may  be  so  described,  ever  issued  in  America 
by  a  firm  of  electrical  engineers. 

In  order  to  be  near  his  new  friend,  Edison 
boarded  with  Pope  at  Elizabeth,  New  Jersey, 
for  some  time  living  the  " strenuous  life"  in 
the  performance  of  his  duties  and  following 
up  his  work  on  telegraph  printers  with  marked 
success. 

128 


INDEPENDENCE 

In  regard  to  this  Mr.  Edison  says :  "  While 
with  them"  (Pope  and  J.  N.  Ashley)  "I  de- 
vised a  printer  to  print  gold  quotations  in- 
stead of  indicating  them.  The  lines  were 
started,  and  the  whole  was  sold  out  to  the 
Gold  and  Stock  Telegraph  Company.  My  ex- 
perimenting was  all  done  in  the  small  shop  of 
a  Dr.  Bradley,  located  near  the  station  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  in  Jersey  City.  Every 
night  I  left  for  Elizabeth  on  the  i  A.M.  train, 
then  walked  half  a  mile  to  Mr.  Pope's  house, 
and  up  at  6  A.M.  for  breakfast,  to  catch  the 
7  A.M.  train.  This  continued  all  winter,  and 
many  were  the  occasions  when  I  was  nearly 
frozen  in  the  Elizabeth  walk." 

After  the  Edison  and  Pope  printer  was 
bought  out  by  the  Gold  and  Stock  Telegraph 
Company,  its  president,  Gen.  Marshall  Lef- 
ferts,  requested  Edison  to  go  to  work  on  im- 
proving the  stock  ticker,  he,  Lefferts,  to 
furnish  the  money. 

Edison  tackled  the  subject  enthusiastically, 
and  as  one  result  produced  the  "Universal" 
ticker,  which  came  into  wide-spread  use  in  its 
day.  This  and  some  other  inventions  had  a 
Startling  effect  on  his  fortunes.  Mr,  Edison 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

says:  " I  made  a  great  many  inventions;  one 
was  the  special  ticker  used  for  many  years  out- 
side of  New  York  in  the  large  cities.  This 
was  made  exceedingly  simple,  as  they  did  not 
have  the  experts  we  had  in  New  York  to 
handle  anything  complicated.  The  same 
ticker  was  used  on  the  London  Stock  Ex- 
change. After  I  had  made  a  great  number 
of  inventions  and  obtained  patents,  the 
General  seemed  anxious  that  the  matter 
should  be  closed  up.  One  day  I  exhibited 
and  worked  a  successful  device  whereby,  if  a 
ticker  should  get  out  of  unison  in  a  broker's 
office  and  commence  to  print  wild  figures,  it 
could  be  brought  to  unison  from  the  central 
station,  which  saved  the  labor  of  many  men 
and  much  trouble  to  the  broker.  He  called 
me  into  his  office,  and  said :  '  Now,  young  man, 
I  want  to  close  up  the  matter  of  your  inven- 
tions. How  much  do  you  think  you  should 
receive  ?'  I  had  made  up  my  mind  that,  tak- 
ing into  consideration  the  time  and  killing 
pace  I  was  working  at,  I  should  be  entitled  to 
five  thousand  dollars,  but  could  get  along  with 
three  thousand  dollars.  When  the  psycho- 
logical moment  arrived,  I  hadn't  the  nerve  to 

130 


INDEPENDENCE 

name  such  a  large  sum,  so  I  said:  'Well, 
General,  suppose  you  make  me  an  offer/ 
Then  he  said:  'How  would  forty  thousand 
dollars  strike  you?'  This  caused  me  to  come 
as  near  fainting  as  I  ever  got.  I  was  afraid  he 
would  hear  my  heart  beat.  I  managed  to  say 
that  I  thought  it  was  fair.  'All  right,  I 
will  have  a  contract  drawn;  come  around  in 
three  days  and  sign  it,  and  I  will  give  you  the 
money.'  I  arrived  on  time,  but  had  been 
doing  some  considerable  thinking  on  the  sub- 
ject. The  sum  seemed  to  be  very  large  for  the 
amount  of  work,  for,  at  that  time  I  deter- 
mined the  value  by  the  time  and  trouble,  and 
not  by  what  the  invention  was  worth  to  others. 
I  thought  there  was  something  unreal  about 
it.  However,  the  contract  was  handed  to  me. 
I  signed  without  reading  it." 

Edison  was  then  handed  the  first  check  he 
had  ever  received,  one  for  forty  thousand 
dollars.  He  went  down  to  the  bank  and 
passed  the  check  in  to  the  paying  teller,  who 
handed  it  back  to  him  with  some  remarks 
which  in  his  deafness  he  did  not  hear.  Fancy- 
ing for  a  moment  he  had  been  cheated,  Edison 
went  outside  "to  let  the  cold  sweat  evaporate." 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

He  went  back  to  the  General,  who,  with  his 
secretary,  had  a  good  laugh  over  the  matter, 
and  told  him  the  check  must  be  endorsed, 
and  sent  with  him  a  clerk  to  identify  him. 

The  ceremony  of  identification  performed 
with  the  paying  teller,  who  was  quite  merry 
over  the  incident,  Edison  was  given  the 
amount  in  bundles  of  small  bills  "  until  there 
certainly  seemed  to  be  one  cubic  foot."  Un- 
aware that  he  was  the  victim  of  a  practical 
joke,  Edison  proceeded  gravely  to  stow  away 
the  money  in  his  overcoat  pockets  and  all  his 
other  pockets.  He  then  went  to  Newark 
and  sat  up  all  night  with  the  money  for  fear  it 
might  be  stolen.  Once  more  he  sought  help 
next  morning,  when  the  General  laughed 
heartily,  and,  telling  the  clerk  that  the  joke 
must  not  be  carried  any  further,  enabled  him 
to  deposit  the  currency  in  the  bank  and  open 
an  account — his  first  bank  account. 

Thus  in  a  very  brief  time  Edison  had  passed 
from  poverty  to  independence.  Not  only 
that,  but  he  had  made  a  deep  impression  as  to 
his  originality  and  ability  on  important  people, 
and  had  brought  out  valuable  inventions. 
Thus  he  lifted  himself  at  one  bound  out  of  the 

132 


INDEPENDENCE 

ranks  and  away  from  the  drudgery  of  the 
key. 

Many  young  men  of  twenty-two  would 
have  been  so  dazzled  by  coming  suddenly  into 
possession  of  forty  thousand  dollars  after  a 
period  of  poverty,  struggle,  and  hard  work, 
that  their  main  ideas  would  have  been  of 
recreation  and  pleasure.  Not  so  with  Edison, 
however.  Naturally  enterprising  and  a  pio- 
neer, this  money  meant  to  him  nothing  but 
means  to  an  end. 

He  bought  some  machinery  and  opened  a 
small  shop  and  got  work  for  it.  Very  quickly 
he  was  compelled  to  move  to  larger  quarters, 
Nos.  10  and  12  Ward  Street,  Newark,  New 
Jersey.  He  secured  large  orders  from  General 
Lefferts  to  build  stock  tickers,  and  employed 
fifty  men. 

As  business  increased  he  put  on  a  night 
force,  and  was  his  own  foreman  in  both  shifts. 
Half  an  hour  of  sleep  three  or  four  times  in  the 
twenty- four  hours  was  all  he  needed.  His 
force  increased  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  men, 
and,  besides  superintending  all  the  work 
day  and  night,  he  was  constantly  making 
new  inventions  in  the  lines  on  which  he 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

was  then  working,  which  was  chiefly  stock 
tickers. 

A  glimpse  at  some  of  young  Edison's  first 
methods  as  a  manufacturer  is  interesting. 
He  says :  ' '  Nearly  all  my  men  were  on  piece- 
work, and  I  allowed  them  to  make  good  wages, 
and  never  cut  until  the  pay  became  absurdly 
high  as  they  got  more  expert.  I  kept  no 
books.  I  had  two  hooks.  All  the  bills  and 
accounts  I  owed  I  jabbed  on  one  hook,  and 
memoranda  of  all  owed  to  myself  I  put  on  the 
other.  When  some  of  the  bills  fell  due,  and  I 
couldn't  deliver  tickers  to  get  a  supply  of 
money,  I  gave  a  note.  When  the  notes  were 
due  a  messenger  came  around  from  the  bank 
with  the  note  and  a  protest  pinned  to  it  for 
one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents.  Then  I 
would  go  to  New  York  and  get  an  advance 
or  pay  the  note  if  I  had  the  money.  This 
method  of  giving  notes  for  my  accounts  and 
having  all  notes  protested  I  kept  up  over  two 
years,  yet  my  credit  was  fine.  Every  store  I 
traded  with  was  always  glad  to  furnish  goods, 
perhaps  in  amazed  admiration  of  my  system 
of  doing  business,  which  was  certainly  new." 

After  a  while  Edison  got   a  bookkeeper, 


INDEPENDENCE 

whose  vagaries  made  him  look  back  with 
regret  on  the  earlier,  primitive  method.  ' '  The 
first  three  months  I  had  him  go  over  the  books 
to  find  out  how  much  we  had  made.  He  re- 
ported three  thousand  dollars.  I  gave  a 
supper  to  some  of  my  men  to  celebrate  this, 
only  to  be  told  two  days  afterward  that  he  had 
made  a  mistake,  and  that  we  had  lost  five 
hundred  dollars;  and  then  a  few  days  after 
that  he  came  to  me  again  and  said  he  was  all 
mixed  up,  and  now  found  that  we  had  made 
over  seven  thousand  dollars. ' '  Edison  changed 
bookkeepers,  but  never  afterward  counted 
anything  real  profit  until  he  had  paid  all  his 
debts  and  had  the  profits  in  the  bank. 

Among  the  men  who  have  worked  with 
Edison  in  his  various  shops  from  time  to 
time,  there  have  always  been  those- who  later 
have  risen  to  some  notable  degree  of  promi- 
nence in  the  electrical  arts.  This  early  shop 
was  no  exception. 

At  a  single  bench  there  worked  three  men 
since  rich  or  prominent.  One  was  Sigmund 
Bergmann,  for  a  time  partner  with  Edison  in 
his  lighting  developments  in  the  United  States, 
and  now  head  and  principal  owner  of  electrical 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

works  in  Berlin,  employing  ten  thousand  men. 
The  next  man  adjacent  was  John  Kruesi, 
afterward  engineer  of  the  great  General  Elec- 
tric Works  at  Schenectady.  A  third  was 
Schuckert,  who  left  the  bench  to  settle  up  his 
father's  little  estate  at  Nuremberg,  stayed 
there  and  founded  electrical  factories  which 
became  the  third  largest  in  Germany,  their 
proprietor  dying  very  wealthy. 

"  I  gave  them  a  good  training  as  to  working 
hours  and  hustling,"  says  Edison.  And  this  is 
equally  true  as  applied  to  many  scores  of 
others  who  have  worked  with  him. 


X 

A   BUSY    YOUNG   INVENTOR 

EDISON  had  now  plunged  into  the  in- 
tensely active  life  that  has  never  since 
ceased.  Some  idea  of  his  activity  may  be 
gained  from  the  fact  that  he  started  no  fewer 
than  three  manufacturing  shops  in  Newark 
during  1870-71.  All  of  these  he  directed 
personally,  besides  busying  himself  with  many 
of  his  own  schemes. 

Speaking  of  those  days,  he  says:  "Soon 
after  starting  the  large  shop  (10  and  12  Ward 
Street,  Newark),  I  rented  shop-ro6m  to  the 
inventor  of  a  new  rifle.  I  think  it  was  the 
Berdan.  In  any  event,  it  was  a  rifle  which 
was  subsequently  adopted  by  the  British 
army.  The  inventor  employed  a  tool-maker 
who  was  the  finest  and  best  I  had  ever  seen. 
I  noticed  that  he  worked  pretty  near  the 
whole  of  the  twenty-four  hours.  This  kind 
of  application  I  was  looking  for.  He  was 

137 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

getting  $21.50  a  week,  and  was  also  paid  for 
overtime.  I  asked  him  if  he  could  run  the 
shop.  'I  don't  know;  try  me!'  he  said. 
'All  right,  I  will  give  you  sixty  dollars  a 
week  to  run  both  shifts. '  He  went  at  it.  His 
executive  ability  was  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  man  I  have  yet  seen.  His  memory  was 
prodigious,  conversation  laconic,  and  move- 
ments rapid.  He  doubled  the  production 
inside  three  months,  without  materially  in- 
creasing the  pay-roll,  by  increasing  the  cutting 
speed  of  tools  and  by  the  use  of  various 
devices.  When  in  need  of  rest  he  would  lie 
down  on  a  work-bench,  sleep  twenty  or  thirty 
minutes,  and  wake  up  fresh.  As  this  was  just 
what  I  could  do,  I  naturally  conceived  a  great 
pride  in  having  such  a  man  in  charge  of  my 
work.  But  almost  everything  has  trouble 
connected  with  it.  He  disappeared  one  day, 
and,  although  I  sent  men  everywhere  that  it 
was  likely  he  could  be  found,  he  was  not  dis- 
covered. After  two  weeks  he  came  into  the 
factory  in  a  terrible  condition  as  to  clothes  and 
face.  He  sat  down,  and,  turning  to  me,  said: 
'Edison,  it's  no  use,  this  is  the  third  time; 
I  can't  stand  prosperity.  Put  my  salary 

138 


A    BUSY    YOUNG    INVENTOR 

back  and  give  me  a  job. '  I  was  very  sorry  to 
learn  that  it  was  whisky  that  spoiled  such  a 
career.  I  gave  him  an  inferior  job  and  kept 
him  for  a  long  time." 

Those  were  indeed  busy  days,  when,  at  one 
time,  Edison,  besides  directing  the  work  of 
his  shops,  was  working  on  no  less  than  forty- 
five  separate  inventions  of  his  own.  He  had 
thus  entered  definitely  upon  that  career  as  an 
inventor  which  has  left  so  deep  an  imprint 
on  the  records  of  the  Patent  Office. 

Soon  after  he  commenced  manufacturing 
he  was  engaged  by  the  Automatic  Telegraph 
Company,  of  New  York,  to  help  it  out  of  its 
difficulties.  An  Englishman  named  George 
Little  had  brought  over  a  system  of  automatic 
telegraphy  which  worked  well  on  a  short  line, 
but  was  a  failure  when  put  upon  the  longer 
circuits,  for  which  automatic  methods  are 
best  adapted. 

This  principle  of  automatic  telegraphy, 
briefly  described,  was  somewhat  as  follows: 
A  narrow  paper  ribbon  was  perforated  with 
groups  of  holes  corresponding  to  Morse  charac- 
ters. This  ribbon  was  passed  over  a  cylinder, 
and  a  metallic  pen  was  so  connected  that  it 

139 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

would  drop  into  the  holes  as  they  passed. 
The  pen  and  cylinder  being'  connected  with 
the  telegraph  line,  a  current  would  pass  over 
the  line  whenever  the  pen  touched  the  cylin- 
der. At  the  other  end  of  the  line  the  electri- 
cal impulses  passed  through  another  metallic 
pen,  which  rested  upon  another  ribbon  of 
paper  chemically  prepared,  and,  through 
electro-chemical  action,  would  mark  dots  and 
dashes  upon  the  paper. 

There  were  a  great  many  very  serious 
difficulties  to  be  overcome  in  order  to  make 
this  system  practical  on  long  lines,  but  Edison 
applied  himself  to  the  work  with  tremendous 
energy.  His  laboratory  note-books  of  the 
period  show  many  thousands  of  experiments 
in  the  three  years  that  he  was  working  on  this 
problem,  and  during  this  time  he  also  took  out 
a  long  list  of  patents  on  the  subject. 

So  successful  were  his  efforts  that  with  his 
apparatus  it  became  possible  to  send  and 
record  one  thousand  words  a  minute  be- 
tween New  York  and  Washington,  and  thirty- 
five  hundred  words  a  minute  between  New 
York  and  Philadelphia. 

Later  on,  Edison  improved  this  system  by 
149 


A    BUSY    YOUNG    INVENTOR 

further  inventions,  by  means  of  which  the 
message  at  the  receiving  end  was  auto- 
matically printed  upon  the  paper  ribbon  in 
Roman  letters  instead  of  dots  and  dashes. 
Thus,  the  paper  on  which  the  message  was 
received  could  be  torn  off  and  sent  out  immedi- 
ately to  the  person  for  whom  it  was  intended. 
This  saved  time  and  expense,  for  under  the 
previous  system  a  clerk  must  first  translate 
the  dots  and  dashes  into  words  and  write  it 
out  before  delivery.  The  apparatus  worked 
so  perfectly  that  three  thousand  words  a 
minute  were  sent  between  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  and  recorded  in  Roman  letters. 

After  Edison's  automatic  system  was  put 
into  successful  use  in  America  by  the  Auto- 
matic Telegraph  Company,  an  arrangement 
was  made  for  a  trial  of  the  system  in  England, 
involving  its  probable  adoption  if  successful. 
Edison  went  to  England  in  1873  to  make  the 
demonstration.  He  was  to  report  there  to 
Col.  George  E.  Gouraud,  through  whom  the 
arrangement  had  been  made. 

With  one  small  satchel  of  clothes,  three 
large  boxes  of  instruments,  and  a  bright 
fellow-telegrapher  named  Jack  Wright,  he 

141 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

took  voyage  on  the  Jumping  Java,  as  she  was 
humorously  known,  of  the  Cunard  line.  The 
voyage  was  rough,  and  the  little  Java  justified 
her  reputation  by  jumping  all  over  the  ocean. 
"At  the  table,"  says  Edison,  "there  were 
never  more  than  ten  or  twelve  people.  I 
wondered  at  the  time  how  it  could  pay  to  run 
an  ocean  steamer  with  so  few  people;  but 
when  we  got  into  calm  water  and  could  see  the 
green  fields,  I  was  astounded  to  see  the  num- 
ber of  people  who  appeared.  There  were 
certainly  two  or  three  hundred.  Only  two 
days  could  I  get  on  deck,  and  on  one  of  these 
a  gentleman  had  a  bad  scalp  wound  from 
being  thrown  against  the  iron  wall  of  a  small 
smoking-room  erected  over  a  freight  hatch.'1 
Arrived  in  London.  Edison  set  up  his 
apparatus  at  the  Telegraph  Street  head- 
quarters, and  sent  his  companion  to  Liverpool 
with  the  instruments  for  that  end.  The  con- 
dition of  the  test  was  that  he  was  to  record 
at  the  rate  of  one  thousand  words  a  minute, 
five  hundred  words  to  be  sent  every  half  hour 
for  six  hours.  Edison  was  given  a  wire  and 
batteries  to  operate  with,  but  a  preliminary 
test  soon  showed  that  he  was  going  to  fail. 

142 


A    BUSY    YOUNG    INVENTOR 

Both  wire  and  batteries  were  poor,  and  one 
of  the  men  detailed  by  the  authorities  to 
watch  the  test  remarked  quietly,  in  a  friendly 
way :  '  You  are  not  going  to  have  much  show. 
They  are  going  to  give  you  an  old  Bridge- 
water  Canal  wire  that  is  so  poor  we  don't 
work  it,  and  a  lot  of '  sand  batteries '  at  Liver- 
pool." l 

The  situation  was  rather  depressing  to  the 
young  American,  but  "I  thanked  him,"  says 
Edison,  "and  hoped  to  reciprocate  somehow. 
I  knew  I  was  in  a  hole.  I  had  been  staying 
at  a  little  hotel  in  Covent  Garden  called  the 
Hummums,  and  got  nothing  but  roast  beef 
and  flounders,  and  my  imagination  was  getting 
into  a  coma.  What  I  needed  was  pastry. 
That  night  I  found  a  French  pastry  shop  in 
High  Holborn  Street  and  filled  •  up.  My 
imagination  got  all  right.  Early  in  the  morn- 
ing I  saw  Gouraud,  stated  my  case,  and 
asked  if  he  would  stand  for  the  purchase  of  a 
powerful  battery  to  send  to  Liverpool.  He 
said  'Yes.'  I  went  immediately  to  Apps,  on 


1  The  sand  battery  is  now  obsolete.  In  this  type  the  cell 
containing  the  elements  was  filled  with  sand,  which  was  kept 
moist  with  an  electrolyte. 

10  143 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

the  Strand,  and  asked  if  he  had  a  powerful 
battery.  He  said  he  hadn't;  that  all  that  he 
had  was  Tyndall's  Royal  Institution  battery, 
which  he  supposed  wrould  not  serve.  I  saw 
it — one  hundred  cells — and  getting  the  price — 
one  hundred  guineas — hurried  to  Gouraud. 
He  said  'Go  ahead.'  I  telegraphed  to  the 
man  in  Liverpool.  He  came  on,  and  got  the 
battery  to  Liverpool,  set  up  and  ready  just 
two  hours  before  the  test  commenced.  One 
of  the  principal  things  that  made  the  system  a 
success  was  that  the  line  was  put  to  earth  at 
the  sending  end  through  a  magnet,  and  the 
extra  current  from  this  passed  to  the  line 
served  to  sharpen  the  recording  waves.  This 
new  battery  was  strong  enough  to  pass  a 
powerful  current  through  the  magnet  without 
materially  diminishing  the  strength  of  the  cur- 
rent." The  test  under  these  more  favorable 
circumstances  was  a  success.  "The  record 
was  as  perfect  as  copper  plate,  and  not  a 
single  remark  was  made  in  the  'time  lost' 
column.'* 

Edison  was  now  asked  if  he  thought  he 
could  get  a  better  speed  through  submarine 
cables  with  this  system,  and  replied  that  he 

144 


A    BUSY    YOUNG    INVENTOR 

would  like  a  chance  to  try  it.  For  this  pur- 
pose twenty-two  hundred  miles  of  /cable 
stored  under  water  in  tanks  was  placed  at  his 
disposal  from  8  P.M.  until  6  A.M.  He  says: 
"This  just  suited  me,  as  I  preferred  night 
work.  I  got  my  apparatus  down  and  set  up, 
and  then  to  get  a  preliminary  idea  of  what 
the  distortion  of  the  signal  would  be  I  sent  a 
single  dot,  which  should  have  been  recorded 
upon  my  automatic  paper  by  a  mark  about 
one  thirty-second  of  an  inch  long.  Instead 
of  that  it  was  twenty-seven  feet  long.  If  I 
ever  had  any  conceit,  it  vanished  from  my 
boots  up !  I  worked  on  this  cable  more  than 
two  weeks,  and  the  best  I  could  do  was  two 
words  per  minute,  which  was  only  one-seventh 
of  what  the  guaranteed  speed  of  the  cable 
should  be  when  laid.  What  I  did  'not  know 
at  the  time  was  that  a  coiled  cable,  owing  to 
induction,  was  infinitely  worse  than  when  laid 
out  straight,  and  that  my  speed  was  as  good 
as,  if  not  better  than,  the  regular  system; 
but  no  one  told  me  this." 

After  a  short  stay  in  England  Edison  re- 
turned to  America.  He  states  that  the 
Automatic  was  finally  adopted  in  England 

H5 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

and  used  for  many  years;  indeed,  it  is  still 
in  use  there.  But  they  took  whatever  they 
needed  from  his  system,  and  he  "has  never 
had  a  cent  from  them." 

On  arriving  home  he  resumed  arduous  work 
on  many  of  his  inventions — chiefly  those 
relating  to  duplex  telegraphy.  This  subject 
had  interested  him  at  various  times  for  four 
or  five  years  previously,  and  he  now  returned 
to  it  with  great  vigor. 

Many  inventors  had  been  working  on  mul- 
tiple transmission,  and  at  this  period  a  system 
of  sending  two  messages  in  opposite  directions 
at  the  same  time  over  one  wire  had  been  in- 
vented by  Joseph  Stearns,  and  had  then 
lately  come  into  use. 

The  subject  of  multiple  transmission  gave 
plenty  of  play  for  ingenuity  and  was  one  that 
had  great  fascination  for  Edison.  He  worked 
out  many  plans,  and  in  April,  1873,  filed  two 
applications  for  patents.  One  of  these 
covered  an  invention  by  which  not  only 
could  two  messages  be  sent  in  opposite  direc- 
tions over  one  wire  at  the  same  time,  but,  if 
desired,  two  separate  messages  could  be  sent 
simultaneously  in  ike  same  direction  over  a 

146 


A    BUSY    YOUNG    INVENTOR 

single  wire.     The  former  method  was  called 
the  ''duplex,"   and  the  latter  the  "diplex." 

Duplexing  was  accomplished  by  varying  the 
strength  of  the  current,  and  diplexing  by  also 
varying  the  direction  of  the  current.  In  this 
invention  there  was  the  germ  of  the  quad- 
ruplex,  and  now  Edison  redoubled  his  efforts 
toward  completing  the  latter  system,  for,  while 
duplexing  doubled  the  capacity  of  a  line,  the 
quadruplex  would  increase  it  four  times. 

He  was  working  also  on  other  inventions, 
but  the  quadruplex  claimed  most  of  his 
attention.  He  says:  "This  problem  was  of 
the  most  difficult  and  complicated  kind,  and  I 
bent  all  my  energies  toward  its  solution.  It 
required  a  peculiar  effort  of  the  mind,  such  as 
the  imagining  of  eight  different  things  moving 
simultaneously  on  a  mental  plane  without 
anything  to  demonstrate  their  efficiency." 

It  is,  perhaps,  hardly  to  be  wondered  at 
that,  when  notified  he  would  have  to  pay 
twelve  and  one-half  per  cent,  extra  if  his 
taxes  in  Newark  were  not  at  once  paid,  he 
actually  forgot  his  own  name  when  asked  for 
it  suddenly  at  the  City  Hall,  and  lost  his  place 
in  the  line! 

147 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 


He  succeeded,  however,  in  inventing  a 
successful  quadruplex  system  by  a  skilful 
combination  of  the  duplex  and  diplex  with 
other  ingenious  devices.  The  immense  value 
of  this  invention  may  be  realized  when  it  is 
stated  that  it  has  been  estimated  to  have 
saved  from  fifteen  million  to  twenty  million 
dollars  in  the  cost  of  line  construction  in 
America.  But  Mr.  Edison  received  only  a 
small  amount  for  it.  We  will  let  him  tell  the 
story  in  his  own  words : 

"About  this  time  I  invented  the  quad- 
ruplex. I  wanted  to  interest  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company  in  it,  with  a  view 
of  selling  it,  but  was  unsuccessful  until  I  made 
an  arrangement  with  the  chief  electrician  of 
the  company,  so  that  he  could  be  known  as  a 
joint  inventor  and  receive  a  portion  of  the 
money.  At  that  time  I  was  very  short  of 
money,  and  needed  it  more  than  glory.  This 
electrician  appeared  to  want  glory  more  than 
money,  so  it  was  an  easy  trade.  I  brought 
my  apparatus  over  and  was  given  a  separate 
room  with  a  marble-tiled  floor — which,  by  the 
way,  was  a  very  hard  kind  of  floor  to  sleep  on— 
and  started  in  putting  on  the  finishing  touches. 

148 


"TROUBLE  ON  THE  'QUAD'" 

Reproduction  of  a  cartoon  issued  by  the  Operator  in  1875 


A    BUSY    YOUNG    INVENTOR 

"After  two  months  of  very  hard  work  I 
got  a  detail  at  regular  times  of  eight  operators, 
and  we  got  it  working  nicely  from  one  room 
to  another  over  a  wire  which  ran  to  Albany 
and  back.  Under  certain  conditions  of 
weather  one  side  of  the  quadruplex  would 
work  very  shakily,  and  I  had  not  succeeded 
in  ascertaining  the  cause  of  the  trouble.  On 
a  certain  day,  when  there  was  a  board  meeting 
of  the  company,  I  was  to  make  an  exhibition 
test.  The  day  arrived.  I  had  picked  the 
best  operators  in  New  York,  and  they  were 
familiar  with  the  apparatus.  I  arranged  that, 
if  a  storm  occurred  and  the  bad  side  got 
shaky,  they  should  do  the  best  they  could  and 
draw  freely  on  their  imaginations.  They 
were  sending  old  messages.  About  twelve 
o'clock  everything  went  wrong,  as  there  was 
a  storm  somewhere  near  Albany,  and  the  bad 
side  got  shaky.  Mr.  Orton,  the  president, 
and  William  H.  Vanderbilt  and  the  other 
directors  came  in.  I  had  my  heart  trying  to 
climb  up  around  my  oesophagus.  I  was  paying 
a  sheriff  five  dollars  a  day  to  withhold  execu- 
tion of  judgment  which  had  been  entered 
against  me  in  a  case  which  I  had  paid  no  at- 

149 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 


tention  to;  and  if  the  quadruplex  had  not 
worked  before  the  president  I  knew  I  was  to 
have  trouble  and  might  lose  my  machinery. 
The  New  York  Times  came  out  next  day  with 
a  full  account.  I  was  given  five  thousand 
dollars  as  part  payment  for  the  invention, 
which  made  me  easy,  and  I  expected  the  whole 
thing  would  be  closed  up.  But  Mr.  Orton 
went  on  an  extended  tour  just  about  that 
time.  I  had  paid  for  all  the  experiments  on 
the  quadruplex  and  exhausted  the  money, 
and  I  was  again  in  straits.  In  the  mean  time 
I  had  introduced  the  apparatus  on  the  lines  of 
the  company,  where  it  was  very  successful. 

"At  that  time  the  general  superintendent 
of  the  Western  Union  was  Gen.  T.  T.  Eckert 
(who  hafl  been  Assistant  Secretary  of  War 
with  Stanton).  Eckert  was  secretly  nego- 
tiating with  Gould  to  leave  the  Western 
Union  and  take  charge  of  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific — Gould's  company.  One  day  Eckert 
called  me  into  his  office  and  made  inquiries 
about  money  matters.  I  told  him  Mr.  Orton 
had  gone  off  and  left  me  without  means,  and 
I  was  in  straits.  He  told  me  I  would  never 
get  another  cent,  but  that  he  knew  a  man 

150 


A    BUSY    YOUNG    INVENTOR 

who  would  buy  it.  I  told  him  of  my  arrange- 
ment with  the  electrician,  and  said  I  could  not 
sell  it  as  a  whole  to  anybody;  but  if  I  got 
enough  for  it  I  would  sell  all  my  interest  in 
any  share  I  might  have.  He  seemed  to  think 
his  party  would  agree  to  this.  I  had  a  set  of 
quadruplex  over  in  my  shop,  10  and  12  Ward 
Street,  Newark,  and  he  arranged  to  bring  him 
over  next  evening  to  see  the  apparatus.  So 
the  next  day  Eckert  came  over  with  Jay 
Gould  and  introduced  him  to  me.  This  was 
the  first  time  I  had  ever  seen  him.  I  exhibited 
and  explained  the  apparatus,  and  they  de- 
parted. The  next  day  Eckert  sent  for  me, 
and  I  was  taken  up  to  Gould's  house,  which 
was  near  the  Windsor  Hotel,  Fifth  Avenue. 
In  the  basement  he  had  kn  office.  It  was  in 
the  evening,  and  we  went\in  by  the 'servants' 
entrance,  as  Eckert  probably  feared  that  he 
was  watched.  Gould  started  in  at  once  and 
asked  me  how  much  I  wanted.  I  said, 
'Make  me  an  offer.'  Then  he  said,  'I  will 
give  you  thirty  thousand  dollars.'  I  said, 
'  I  will  sell  any  interest  I  may  have  for  that 
money/  which  was  something  more  than  I 
thought  I  could  get.  The  next  morning  I 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

went  with  Gould  to  the  office  of  his  lawyers, 
Sherman  &  Sterling,  and  received  a  check 
for  thirty  thousand  dollars,  with  a  remark  by 
Gould  that  I  had  got  the  steamboat  Plymouth 
Rock,  as  he  had  sold  her  for  thirty  thousand 
dollars,  and  had  just  received  the  check. 
There  was  a  big  fight  on  between  Gould's 
company  and  the  Western  Union,  and  this 
caused  litigation.  The  electrician,  on  account 
of  the  testimony  involved,  lost  his  glory. 
The  judge  never  decided  the  case,  but  went 
crazy  a  few  months  afterward." 

Mr.  Gould  controlled  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
Telegraph  Company  and  was  aiming  to  get 
control  of  the  Western  Union  Company,  and 
his  purchase  of  Edison's  share  in  the  quad- 
ruplex  was  an  important  move  in  this  direction. 

Having  learned  of  the  success  of  Edison's 
automatic  system,  mentioned  in  the  early 
part  of  this  chapter,  Mr.  Gould's  next  move 
was  to  get  control  of  that.  It  was  owned  by 
Mr.  Edison  and  his  associates  of  the  Auto- 
matic Telegraph  Company,  and  that  company 
was  bought  by  Mr.  Gould  under  an  agreement 
to  pay  four  million  dollars  in  stock.  As  to 
this,  Mr.  Edison  says:  " After  this,  Gould 


A    BUSY    YOUNG    INVENTOR 

wanted  me  to  help  install  the  automatic 
system  in  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Company,  of 
which  General  Eckert  had  been  elected  presi- 
dent, the  company  having  bought  the  Auto- 
matic Telegraph  Company.  I  did  a  lot  of 
work  for  this  company  making  automatic 
apparatus  in  my  shop  at  Newark." 

Unfortunately  for  the  inventor  and  his  as- 
sociates, the  terms  of  the  contract  have  never 
been  carried  out.  Mr.  Edison  remarks  in 
regard  to  this:  "He"  (Gould)  "took  no  pride 
in  building  up  an  enterprise.  He  was  after 
money,  and  money  only.  Whether  the  com- 
pany was  a  success  or  a  failure  mattered  not 
to  him.  After  he  had  hammered  the  Western 
Union  through  his  opposition  company  and 
had  tired  out  Mr.  Vanderbilt,  the  latter  retired 
from  control,  and  Gould  went  in  and  consoli- 
dated his  company  and  controlled  the  Western 
Union.  He  then  repudiated  the  contract 
with  the  Automatic  Telegraph  people,  and 
they  never  received  a  cent  for  their  wires  or 
patents,  and  I  lost  three  years  of  very  hard 
labor.  But  I  never  had  any  grudge  against 
him,  because  he  was  so  able  in  his  line,  and  as 
long  as  my  part  was  successful  the  money 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

with  me  was  a  secondary  consideration.  When 
Gould  got  the  Western  Union  I  knew  no 
further  progress  in  telegraphy  was  possible, 
and  I  went  into  other  lines." 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  suits  in  the 
history  of  American  jurisprudence  arose  out  of 
this  transaction.  Mr.  Edison  and  his  asso- 
ciates sued  Mr.  Gould  in  1876  for  the  recovery 
of  the  contract  price  of  these  inventions,  and, 
at  this  writing,  thirty-five  years  later,  the 
suit  has  not  been  finally  decided.  It  is  now 
on  appeal  to  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court. 

A  busier  shop  than  that  of  the  young  in- 
ventor during  the  years  1870  to  1874  would  be 
difficult  to  find.  Not  only  was  he  and  it 
engaged  on  the  tremendous  problems  of  the 
automatic  and  quadruplex  systems,  but  the 
shop  was  also  busy  making  stock  tickers.  The 
hours  were  endless ;  and  on  one  occasion  when 
an  order  was  on  hand  for  a  large  quantity  of 
these  instruments  Edison  locked  the  men  in 
until  the  job  had  been  finished  of  making  the 
machine  perfect,  and  "  all  the  bugs  taken  out," 
which  meant  sixty  hours  of  hard  work  before 
the  difficulties  were  overcome. 


A    BUSY    YOUNG    INVENTOR 

In  addition  to  all  this  work,  Edison  gave 
attention  to  many  other  things.  One  of  them 
was  the  first  typewriter.  In  the  early  seven- 
:ies  Mr.  D.  N.  Craig,  who  was  interested  in 
:he  automatic,  brought  with  him  from  Mil- 
waukee a  Mr.  Sholes,  who  had  a  wooden 
nodel  of  a  machine  to  which  had  been  given 
;he  then  new  and  unfamiliar  name  of  "  type- 
writer. "  Mr.  Craig  was  interested  in  the 
nachine  and  put  the  model  in  Edison's  hands 
;o  perfect. 

"This  typewriter  proved  a  difficult  thing/' 
;ays  Edison,  "to  make  commercial.  The 
dignment  of  the  letters  was  awful.  One 
etter  would  be  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  above 
;he  others,  and  all  the  letters  wanted  to  wan- 
ler  out  of  line.  I  worked  on  it  till  the  machine 
*ave  fair  results.  Some  were  made  and  used 
n  the  office  of  the  Automatic  Company, 
raig  was  very  sanguine  that  some  day  all 
business  letters  would  be  written  on  a  type- 
writer. He  died  before  that  took  place;  but 
it  gradually  made  its  way.  The  typewriter 
I  got  into  commercial  shape  is  now  known  as 
the  Remington.  I  now  had  five  shops,  and 
with  experimenting  on  this  new  scheme  I 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

was   pretty  busy — at   least   I  did  not  have 


ennui.' 


Later  on,  after  the  automatic  was  com- 
pleted, and  Edison  was  installing  the  system 
for  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Telegraph  Com- 
pany he  says:  "  About  this  time  I  invented  a 
district  messenger  call-box  system,  and  organ- 
ized a  company  called^the  Domestic  Telegraph 
Company,  and  started  in  to  install  the  system 
in  New  York.  I  had  great  difficulty  in  getting 
subscribers,  having  tried  several  canvassers, 
who,  one  after  the  other,  failed  to  get  sub- 
scribers. When  I  was  about  to  give  it  up  a 
test  operator  named  Brown,  who  was  on  the 
Automatic  Telegraph  wire  between  New  York 
and  Washington,  which  passed  through  my 
Newark  shop,  asked  permission  to  let  him  try 
and  see  if  he  couldn't  get  subscribers.  I  had 
very  little  faith  in  his  ability  to  get  any,  but  I 
thought  I  would  give  him  a  chance,  as  he  felt 
certain  of  his  ability  to  succeed.  He  started 
in,  and  the  results  were  surprising.  Within 
a  month  he  had  procured  two  hundred  sub- 
scribers, and  the  company  was  a  success.  I 
have  never  quite  understood  why  six  men 
should  fail  absolutely,  while  the  seventh  man 


A    BUSY    YOUNG    INVENTOR 

should  succeed.  Perhaps  hypnotism  would 
account  for  it.  This  company  was  sold  out 
to  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Company." 

This  was  not  the  first  time  that  Edison  had 
worked  on  district  messenger  signal  boxes,  for 
as  far  back  as  1872  he  had  applied  for  a  patent 
on  a  device  of  this  kind.  Although  he  was  not 
the  first,  he  was  a  very  early  inventor  in  this 
field. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  not  all  of  his 
problems  and  inventions  were  connected  with 
telegraphy.  He  seemed  to  find  relief  in  work- 
ing on  several  lines  that  were  quite  different 
and  distinct,  but  all  were  useful  and  capable 
of  wide  application.  For  instance,  when  we 
take  a  piece  of  paraffin  paper  off  candy, 
chocolate,  chewing-gum  or  other  articles,  we 
scarcely  realize  that  it  owes  its  introduction 
to  Mr.  Edison.  Yet  such  is  the  fact,  and  we 
relate  it  in  his  own  modest  words:  "  To  ward 
the  latter  part  of  1875,  in  the  Newark  shop, 
I  invented  a  device  for  multiplying  copies  of 
letters,  which  I  sold  to  Mr.  A.  B.  Dick,  of 
Chicago,  and  in  the  years  since  it  has  been 
introduced  universally  throughout  the  world, 
tt  is  called  the  mimeograph.  I  also  invented 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

devices  for  making,  and  introduced,  paraffin 
paper,  now  used  universally  for  wrapping  up 
candy,  etc." 

In  the  mimeograph  a  stencil  is  prepared  by 
writing  with  a  pointed  pencil-like  stylus  on  a 
tough  prepared  paper  placed  on  a  finely 
grooved  steel  plate.  The  pressure  of  the 
stylus  causes  the  letters  to  be  punctured  in 
the  sheet  by  a  series  of  minute  perforations, 
thus  forming  a  stencil  from  which  hundreds  of 
copies  can  be  made. 

Edison  accomplished  the  same  perforating 
result  by  two  other  inventions,  one  a  pneu- 
matic and  the  other  an  electric  motor.  The 
latter  was  the  one  which  came  into  extensive 
use,  and  was  called  the  "Edison  electric 
pen."  A  tiny  electric  motor  was  mounted  on 
a  pencil-like  tube  in  which  a  pointed  stylus 
(connected  to  the  motor)  traveled  to  and  fro 
at  a  very  high  rate  of  speed.  Current  from  a 
battery  was  supplied  to  the  motor  through  a 
flexible  cord,  and  the  tube  was  held  and  used 
like  a  pencil,  as  in  the  other  case.  As  many 
as  three  thousand  copies  have  been  made  from 
such  a  stencil. 


XI 

THE  TELEPHONE,  MOTOGRAPH,  AND  MICROPHONE 

TT  is  well  known  that  to  Mr.  Alexander 
*  Graham  Bell  belongs  the  credit  for  trans- 
mitting the  articulate  voice  over  an  electric 
circuit  by  talking  against  a  diaphragm  placed 
in  front  of  an  electro-magnet.  But  after 
Mr.  Bell  brought  out  the  telephone  Mr. 
Edison  made  some  remarkable  improvements. 

In  the  year  1875  Edison  took  up  the  study 
of  harmonic  telegraphs,  in  addition  to  his 
other  work,  with  the  idea  of  developing  a 
system  of  multiple  transmission  by  sending 
sound  waves  over  an  electric  circuit. 

One  of  the  devices  he  then  made  is  illus- 
trated in  an  interesting  drawing  on  file  at  the 
Orange  Laboratory,  entitled  "  First  Telephone 
on  Record."  This  device  is  described  by 
Edison  in  a  caveat  filed  in  the  Patent  Office 
January  14,  1876,  a  month  before  Bell  filed  his 
application  for  patent. 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Mr.  Edison  states,  however,  that  while 
this  device  was  crudely  capable  of  use  as  a 
magneto  telephone,  he  did  not  invent  it  for 
transmitting  speech,  but  as  an  apparatus  for 
analyzing  the  complex  waves  arising  from 
various  sounds.  He  did  not  try  the  effects  of 
sound  waves  produced  by  the  human  voice 
until  after  Bell's  discovery  was  announced, 
but  then  found  that  this  device  was  capable  of 
use  as  a  telephone. 

This  was  a  curious  coincidence,  but  it  must 
be  understood  that  Mr.  Edison  in  his  testi- 
mony and  public  utterances  has  always  given 
Mr.  Bell  full  credit  for  the  original  discovery 
of  transmitting  articulate  speech  over  an 
electric  circuit. 

In  order  to  understand  the  value  of  Edison's 
work  in  this  field  it  should  be  stated  that,  while 
Bell's  telephone  transmitted  speech  and  other 
sounds,  it  was  only  practicable  for  short  lines. 
Bell  had  no  separate  transmitter,  but  used  a 
single  apparatus  both  as  transmitter  and 
receiver.  This  instrument  was  similar  to  the 
receiver  used  to-day,  having  a  metallic  dia- 
phragm placed  near  the  pole  of  a  magnet. 
The  vibrations  of  the  diaphragm  induced  very 

1 60 


THE    TELEPHONE 

weak  electric  impulses  in  the  magnetic  coil. 
These  impulses  passed  over  the  line  to  the 
receiving  end,  energizing  the  magnet  coil 
there,  and,  by  varying  the  magnetism,  caused 
the  receiving  diaphragm  to  be  similarly 
vibrated,  and  thus  reproduce  the  sounds. 
Under  such  conditions  the  telephone  would 
be  practicable  upon  lines  of  only  a  few  miles 
in  extent,  as  the  amount  of  power  generated 
by  the  human  voice  is  necessarily  quite 
limited. 

The  Western  Union  Company  requested 
Edison  to  experiment  on  the  telephone  so 
that  it  would  be  commercially  practicable. 
He  then  went  to  work  with  a  corps  of  helpers, 
and,  after  months  of  hard  work  day  and  night 
and  the  performance  of  many  thousands  of 
experiments,  invented  the  carbon  transmitter. 

This,  with  his  plan  of  using  an  induction  coil 
and  constant  battery  current  on  the  line,  were 
the  needed  elements  of  success,  and  it  made 
the  telephone  a  commercial  possibility.  Every 
one  of  the  many  millions  of  telephones  in  use 
all  over  the  world  to-day  bears  the  imprint  of 
Edison's  genius  in  the  employment  of  th§ 
principles  he  then  established. 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

What  Edison  accomplished  was  this:  In- 
stead of  using  one  single  apparatus  for  trans- 
mitting and  receiving,  he  made  a  separate 
transmitter  of  special  design.  In  this  he  used 
carbon,  which  varies  in  electrical  resistance 
with  the  pressure  applied.  The  carbon  was 
an  electrode  in  connection  with  the  vibrating 
diaphragm,  and  was  in  a  closed  circuit  through 
which  flowed  a  battery  current.  The  vibra- 
tions of  the  diaphragm  caused  variations  of 
pressure  on  the  carbon  and  consequent  varia- 
tions in  the  current.  These  in  turn  resulted 
in  corresponding  impulses  in  the  receiving 
magnet,  and  the  diaphragm  of  the  receiver 
was  vibrated  accordingly,  thus  reproducing 
the  sounds.  Edison's  plan  also  included  the 
passing  of  the  current  through  an  induction 
coil,  the  secondary  of  which  was  connected 
with  the  main  line.  By  this  means  electrical 
impulses  of  enormously  high  potential  are 
sent  out  on  the  main  line  to  the  receiving  end. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  with  Bell's  tele- 
phone the  sound-waves  themselves  generate 
the  electric  impulses,  which  are  hence  ex- 
tremely weak.  With  Edison's  telephone  the 
sound-waves  actuate  an  electric  valve,  so  to 

162 


THE    TELEPHONE 

speak,  and  permit  variations  in  a  current  of 
any  desired  strength. 

Mr.  Edison's  own  story  of  his  telephone 
work  is  full  of  interest:  "In  1876  I  started 
again  to  experiment  for  the  Western  Union 
and  Mr.  Orton.  This  time  it  was  the  tele- 
phone. Bell  invented  the  first  telephone, 
which  consisted  of  the  present  receiver,  used 
both  as  a  transmitter  and  a  receiver  (the 
magneto  type).  It  was  attempted  to  intro- 
duce it  commercially,  but  it  failed  on  account 
of  its  faintness  and  the  extraneous  sounds 
which  came  in  on  its  wire  from  various  causes. 
Mr.  Orton  wanted  me  to  take  hold  of  it  and 
make  it  commercial.  As  I  had  also  been 
working  on  a  telegraph  system  employing 
tuning-forks,  simultaneously  with  both  Bell 
and  Gray,  I  was  pretty  familiar  with"  the  sub- 
ject. I  started  in,  and  soon  produced  the  car- 
bon transmitter,  which  is  now  universally  used. 

"  Tests  were  made  between  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  also  between  New  York  and 
Washington,  using  regular  Western  Union 
wires.  The  noises  were  so  great  that  not  a 
word  could  be  heard  with  the  Bell  receiver 
when  used  as  a  transmitter  between  New  York 

163 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

and  Newark,  New  Jersey.  Mr.  Orton  and 
W.  K.  Vanderbilt  and  the  board  of  directors 
witnessed  and  took  part  in  the  tests  of  my 
transmitter.  They  were  successful.  The 
Western  Union  then  put  the  transmitters  on 
private  lines.  Mr.  Theodore  Puskas,  of  Buda- 
pest, Hungary,  was  the  first  man  to  suggest 
a  telephone  exchange,  and  soon  after  ex- 
changes were  established.  The  telephone  de- 
partment was  put  in  the  hands  of  Hamilton 
McK.  Twombly,  Vanderbilt 's  ablest  son-in- 
law,  who  made  a  success  of  it.  The  Bell 
Company,  of  Boston,  also  started  an  exchange, 
and  the  fight  was  on,  the  Western  Union 
pirating  the  Bell  receiver  and  the  Boston 
company  pirating  the  Western  Union  trans- 
mitter. About  this  time  I  wanted  to  be 
taken  care  of.  I  threw  out  hints  of  this 
desire.  Then  Mr.  Orton  sent  for  me.  He 
had  learned  that  inventors  didn't  do  business 
by  the  regular  process,  and  concluded  he 
would  close  it  right  up.  He  asked  me  how 
much  I  wanted.  I  had  made  up  my  mind  it 
was  certainly  worth  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars  if  it  ever  amounted  to  anything  for 
central  station  work;  so  that  was  the  sum 

164 


THE    TELEPHONE 

I  had  in  mind  to  obstinately  stick  to  and  get. 
Still  it  had  been  an  easy  job,  and  only  re- 
quired a  few  months,  and  I  felt  a  little  shaky 
and  uncertain.  So  I  asked  him  to  make  me 
an  offer.  He  promptly  said  he  would  give 
me  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  *  All  right, ' 
I  said,  'it  is  yours  on  one  condition,  and 
that  is  that  you  do  not  pay  it  all  at  once,  but 
pay  me  at  the  rate  of  six  thousand  dollars  a 
year  for  seventeen  years — the  life  of  the 
patent.  He  seemed  only  too  pleased  to  do 
this,  and  it  was  closed.  My  ambition  was 
about  four  times  too  large  for  my  business 
capacity,  and  I  knew  that  I  would  soon  spend 
this  money  experimenting  if  I  got  it  all  at 
once;  so  I  fixed  it  that  I  couldn't.  I  saved 
seventeen  years  of  worry  by  this  stroke." 

Edison  continued  his  telephone  work 
through  a  number  of  years  and  made  and 
tested  many  other  kinds  of  telephones,  such 
as  the  water  telephone,  electrostatic  tele- 
phone, condenser  telephone,  chemical  tele- 
phone, various  magneto  telephones,  inertia 
telephone,  mercury  telephone,  voltaic  pile 
telephone,  musical  transmitter,  and  the  electro- 
motograph. 

165 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

The  principle  of  the  electromotograph  was 
utilized  by  him  in  more  ways  than  one;  first 
of  all  in  telegraphy.  Soon  after  the  time  he 
had  concluded  the  telephone  arrangement 
just  mentioned  a  patent  was  issued  to  a  Mr. 
Page.  This  patent  was  considered  very 
important.  It  related  to  the  use  of  a  re- 
tractile spring  to  withdraw  the  armature 
lever  from  the  magnet  of  a  telegraph  or  other 
relay  or  sounder,  and  thus  controlled  the  art 
of  telegraphy,  except  in  simple  circuits. 

" There  was  no  known  way,"  remarks 
Edison,  " whereby  this  patent  could  be  evaded, 
and  its  possessor  would  eventually  control 
the  use  of  what  is  known  as  the  relay  and 
sounder,  and  this  was  vital  to  telegraphy. 
Gould  was  pounding  the  Western  Union  on 
the  Stock  Exchange,  disturbing  its  railroad 
contracts,  and,  being  advised  by  his  lawyers 
that  this  patent  was  of  great  value,  bought  it. 
The  moment  Mr.  Orton  heard  this  he  sent  for 
me  and  explained  the  situation,  and  wanted 
me  to  go  to  work  immediately  and  see  if  I 
couldn't  evade  it  or  discover  some  other 
means  that  could  be  used  in  case  Gould 
sustained  the  patent.  It  seemed  a  pretty 

166 


THE    MOTOGRAPH 

hard  job,  because  there  was  no  known  means 
of  moving  a  lever  at  the  other  end  of  a  tele- 
graph wire  except  by  the  use  of  a  magnet. 
I  said  I  would  go  at  it  that  night.  In  experi- 
menting some  years  previously  I  had  dis- 
covered a  very  peculiar  phenomenon,  and 
that  was  that  if  a  piece  of  metal  connected  to 
a  battery  was  rubbed  over  a  moistened  piece 
of  chalk  resting  on  a  metal  connected  to  the 
other  pole,  when  the  current  passed  the 
friction  was  greatly  diminished.  When  the 
current  was  reversed  the  friction  was  greatly 
increased  over  what  it  was  when  no  current 
was  passing.  Remembering  this,  I  sub- 
stituted a  piece  of  chalk,  rotated  by  a  small 
electric  motor  for  the  magnet,  and  connecting 
a  sounder  to  a  metallic  finger  resting  on  the 
chalk,  the  combination  claim  of  Page  was 
made  worthless.  A  hitherto  unknown  means 
was  introduced  in  the  electric  art.  Two  or 
three  of  the  devices  were  made  and  tested 
by  the  company's  expert.  Mr.  Orton,  after 
he  had  had  me  sign  the  patent  application 
and  got  it  in  the  Patent  Office,  wanted  to 
settle  for  it  at  once.  He  asked  my  price. 
Again  I  said,  'Make  me  an  offer.'  Again  he 

167 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

named  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  I 
accepted,  providing  he  would  pay  it  at  the  rate 
of  six  thousand  dollars  a  year  for  seventeen 
years.  This  was  done,  and  thus,  with  the 
telephone  money,  I  received  twelve  thousand 
dollars  yearly  for  that  period  from  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company. " 

A  year  or  two  later  the  electromotograph 
principle  was  again  made  use  of  in  a  curious 
manner.  The  telephone  was  being  developed 
in  England,  and  Edison  had  made  arrange- 
ments with  Colonel  Gouraud,  his  old  associate 
in  the  automatic  telegraph,  to  represent  his 
interests. 

A  company  was  formed,  a  large  number  of 
instruments  were  made  and  sent  to  London, 
and  prospects  were  bright.  Then  there  came 
a  threat  of  litigation  from  the  owners  of  the 
Bell  patent,  and  Gouraud  found  he  could  not 
push  the  enterprise  unless  he  could  avoid 
using  what  was  asserted  to  be  an  infringement 
of  the  Bell  receiver. 

He  cabled  for  help  to  Edison,  who  sent  back 
word  telling  him  to  hold  the  fort.  "  I  had 
recourse  again,"  says  Edison,  "to  the  phe- 
nomenon discovered  by  me  some  years  pre- 
168 


THE    MOTOGRAPH 

vious,  that  the  friction  of  a  rubbing  electrode 
passing  over  a  moist  chalk  surface  was  varied 
by  electricity.  I  devised  a  telephone  receiver 
which  was  afterward  known  as  the  'loud- 
speaking  telephone/  or  *  chalk  receiver/ 
There  was  no  magnet,  simply  a  diaphragm  and 
a  cylinder  of  compressed  chalk  about  the  size 
of  a  thimble.  A  thin  spring  connected  to  the 
center  of  the  diaphragm  extended  outwardly 
and  rested  on  the  chalk  cylinder,  and  was 
pressed  against  it  with  a  pressure  equal  to 
that  which  would  be  due  to  a  weight  of  about 
six  pounds.  The  chalk  was  rotated  by  hand. 
The  volume  of  sound  was  very  great.  A 
person  talking  into  the  carbon  transmitter  in 
New  York  had  his  voice  so  amplified  that  he 
could  be  heard  one  thousand  feet  away  in  an 
open  field  at  Menlo  Park.  This  great  excess 
of  power  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  latter 
came  from  the  person  turning  the  handle. 
The  voice,  instead  of  furnishing  all  the  power, 
as  with  the  present  receiver,  merely  con- 
trolled the  power,  just  as  an  engineer  working 
a  valve  would  control  a  powerful  engine. 

"I  made  six  of  these  receivers  and  sent 
them  in  charge  of  an  expert  on  the  first 

169 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

steamer.  They  were  welcomed  and  tested, 
and  shortly  afterward  I  shipped  a  hundred 
more.  At  the  same  time  I  was  ordered  to 
send  twenty  young  men,  after  teaching  them 
to  become  expert.  I  set  up  an  exchange  of 
ten  instruments  around  the  laboratory.  I 
would  then  go  out  and  get  each  one  out  of 
order  in  every  conceivable  way,  cutting  the 
wires  of  one,  short-circuiting  another,  destroy- 
ing the  adjustment  of  a  third,  putting  dirt 
between  the  electrodes  of  a  fourth,  and  so  on. 
A  man  would  be  sent  to  each  to  find  out  the 
trouble.  When  he  could  find  the  trouble  ten 
consecutive  times,  using  five  minutes  each, 
he  was  sent  to  London.  About  sixty  men 
were  sifted  to  get  twenty.  Before  all  had 
arrived,  the  Bell  Company  there,  seeing  we 
could  not  be  stopped,  entered  into  negotia- 
tions for  consolidation.  One  day  I  received  a 
cable  from  Gouraud  offering  '  thirty  thousand ' 
for  my  interest.  I  cabled  back  I  would 
accept.  When  the  draft  came  I  was  aston- 
ished to  find  it  was  for  thirty  thousand  pounds. 
I  had  thought  it  was  dollars/* 

After  the   consolidation   of  the   Bell   and 
Edison  interests  in  England  the  chalk  receiver 

170 


THE    MICROPHONE 

was  finally  abandoned  in  favor  of  the  Bell 
receiver — the  latter  being  more  simple  and 
cheaper.  Extensive  litigation  with  new- 
comers into  the  telephone  field  followed,  and 
Edison's  carbon  transmitter  patent  was  sus- 
tained by  the  English  courts,  while  Bell's  was 
declared  invalid. 

In  America,  the  competition  between  the 
Western  Union  and  Bell  companies,  which 
had  been  keen  and  strenuous,  was  finally 
brought  to  an  end  under  an  agreement,  the 
former  company  agreeing  to  retire  from  the 
telephonic  field  and  the  latter  company  agree- 
ing to  stay  out  of  the  telegraphic  field. 
Through  its  ownership  of  Edison's  carbon 
transmitter  invention,  the  Western  Union 
company  came  to  enjoy  an  annual  income  of 
several  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  some 
years  as  a  compensation  for  its  retirement 
from  telephony  under  this  agreement. 

The  principle  involved  in  Edison's  carbon- 
transmitter  gave  birth  to  another  interesting 
device  called  the  microphone,  by  means  of 
which  the  faintest  sounds  could  be  very 
plainly  heard.  For  instance,  the  footsteps 
:>f  a  common  house-fly  make  a  loud  noise 

171 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

when  the  hearing  is  assisted  by  the  micro- 
phone. 

The  invention  of  this  device  was  hotly 
disputed  at  the  time,  it  being  claimed  for 
Professor  Hughes,  of  England.  Whatever 
credit  might  be  due  to  him  for  the  form  he 
proposed,  a  standard  history  ascribes  two 
original  forms  of  the  microphone  to  Edison, 
and  he  himself  remarks:  "After  I  sent  one  of 
my  men  over  to  London  especially  to  show 
Preece  the  carbon  transmitter,  when  Hughes 
first  saw  it,  and  heard  it — then  within  a 
month  he  came  out  with  the  microphone,  with- 
out any  acknowledgment  whatever.  Pub- 
lished dates  will  show  that  Hughes  came  along 
after  me." 

The  carbon  transmitter  has  not  been  the 
only  way  in  which  Edison  has  utilized  the 
peculiar  property  that  carbon  possesses  of 
altering  its  resistance  to  the  passage  of  current 
according  to  the  degree  of  pressure  brought  to 
bear  on  it. 

For  his  quadruplex  system  he  constructed 
a  rheostat,  or  resistance  box,  with  a  series  of 
silk  disks  saturated  with  plumbago  and  we! 
dried.     The   pressure   on   the  disks   can 


THE    MICROPHONE 

regulated  by  an  adjustable  screw,  and  in  this 
way  the  resistance  of  the  circuit  can  be  varied. 

He  also  developed  a  "pressure,"  or  carbon, 
relay,  by  means  of  which  signals  of  variable 
strength  can  be  transferred  from  one  tele- 
graphic circuit  to  another.  The  poles  of  the 
electromagnet  in  the  local  or  relay  circuit  are 
hollowed  out  and  filled  up  with  carbon  disks 
or  powdered  plumbago. 

If  a  weak  current  passes  through  the  relay 
the  armature  will  be  but  feebly  attracted  and 
will  only  compress  the  carbon  slightly.  Thus 
the  carbon  will  offer  considerable  resistance 
and  the  signal  on  the  local  sounder  will  be 
weak. 

If,  on  the  contrary,  the  incoming  current 
be  strong,  the  armature  will  be  strongly 
attracted,  the  carbon  will  be  more  com- 
pressed, thus  lowering  the  resistance  and  giv- 
ing a  loud  signal  on  the  local  sounder. 

Another  beautiful  and  ingenious  use  of 
carbon  was  made  by  Edison  in  an  instru- 
ment invented  by  him  called  the  tasimeter. 
This  device  was  used  for  indicating  most 
minute  degrees  of  heat,  and  was  so  exceed- 
ingly sensitive  that  in  one  case  the  heat  of 

173 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

rays  of  light  from  the  remote  star  Arcturus 
showed  results. 

The  tasimeter  is  a  very  simple  instrument. 
A  strip  of  hard  rubber  rests  vertically  on  a 
platinum  plate,  beneath  which  is  a  carbon 
button,  under  which  again  lies  another  plati- 
num plate.  The  two  plates  and  the  carbon 
button  form  part  of  an  electric  circuit  con- 
taining a  battery  and  a  galvanometer.  Hard 
rubber  is  very  sensitive  to  heat,  and  the 
slightest  rise  of  temperature  causes  it  to 
expand,  thus  increasing  the  pressure  on  the 
carbon  button.  This  produces  a  variation 
in  resistance  shown  by  the  swinging  of  the 
galvanometer  needle. 

This  instrument  is  so  sensitive  that  with  a 
delicate  galvanometer  the  heat  of  a  person's 
hand  thirty  feet  away  will  throw  the  needle 
off  the  scale. 


XII 

MAKING   A   MACHINE   TALK 

TF  one  had  never  heard  a  phonograph,  it 
*  would  seem  as  though  it  would  be  impos- 
sible to  take  some  pieces  of  metal  and  make 
a  machine  that  would  repeat  speaking,  singing, 
or  instrumental  music  just  like  life. 

So,  before  the  autumn  of  i&iz*.  when  Edison 
invented  the  phonograph,  the  world  thought 
such  a  thing  was  entirely  out  of  the  question, 
[ndeed,  Edison's  own  men  in  his  workshop, 
'«     who  had  seen  him  do  some  wonderful  things, 


thought  the  idea  was  absurd  when 'he  told 
them  that  he  was  making  a  machine  to  repro- 
duce human  speech. 

One  of  his  men  went  so  far  as  to  bet  him  a 
)ox  of  cigars  that  the  thing  would  be  an  utter 
failure  when  finished,  but,  as  every  one  knows, 
Edison  won  the  bet,  for  the  very  first  time  the 
machine  was  tried  it  repeated  clearly  all  the 
words  that  were  spoken  into  it. 

™  175 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

A  story  has  often  been  told  in  the  news- 
papers that  the  invention  was  made  through 
Edison's  ringer  being  pricked  by  a  point 
attached  to  a  vibrating  telephone  diaphragm, 
but  this  is  not  true. 

The  invention  was  not  made  through  any 
accident,  but  was  the  result  of  pure  reasoning, 
and  in  this  case,  as  in  many  others,  fact  is 
more  wonderful  than  fiction.  Mr.  Edison's 
own  account  of  the  invention  of  the  phono- 
graph is  intensely  interesting. 

"I  was  experimenting,"  he  says,   "on  an 
automatic    method    of    recording    telegraph 
messages  on  a  disk  of  paper  laid  on  a  revolving     i 
platen,  exactly  the  same  as  the  disk  talking-     ; 
machine  of  to-day.     The  platen  had  a  spiral 
groove  on  its  surface,  like  the  disk.     Over 
this  was  placed  a  circular  disk  of  paper;  an     ) 
electro  -  magnet    with    the    embossing    point     1 
connected  to  an  arm  traveled  over  the  disk,|  I  j 
and  any  signals  given  through  the  magnets     n 
were  embossed  on  the  disk  of  paper.     If  this 
disk  was  removed  from  the  machine  and  put     : 
on  a  similar  machine  provided  with  a  contact     » 
point  the  embossed  record  would  cause  the    \ 
signals   to   be   repeated    into   another   wire.     r 

176 


MAKING    A    MACHINE    TALK 

he  ordinary  speed  of  telegraphic  signals  is 
irty-five  to  forty  words  a  minute;  but  with 
is  machine  several  hundred  words  were 
ssible. 

"From  my  experiments  on  the  telephone 
knew  of  the  power  of  a  diaphragm  to  take  up 
und  vibrations,  as  I  had  made  a  little  toy 
hich  when  you  recited  loudly  in  the  funnel 
ould  work  a  pawl  connected  to  the  dia- 
hragm;   and  this,  engaging  a  ratchet-wheel, 
rved  to  give  continuous  rotation  to  a  pulley, 
is  pulley  was  connected  by  a  cord  to  a  little 
aper  toy  representing  a  man  sawing  wood, 
ence,   if  one  shouted:    'Mary  had  a  little 
b,'  etc.,  the  paper  man  would  start  sawing 
wood.     I   reached  the  conclusion  that   if   I 
e:    could  record  the  movements  of  the  diaphragm 
properly  I  could  cause  such  records  to  repro- 
duce the  original  movements  imparted  to  the 
diaphragm  by  the  voice,  and  thus  succeed  in 
;ts     recording  and  reproducing  the  human  voice. 
"  Instead  of  using  a  disk  I  designed  a  little 
machine,    using    a    cylinder    provided    with 
grooves  around  the  surface.      Over  this  was 
to  be  placed  tin-foil,  which  easily  received  and 
recorded  the  movements  of  the  diaphragm. 

177 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

A  sketch  was  made,  and  the  piecework  price, 
eighteen  dollars,  was  marked  on  the  sketch. 
I  was  in  the  habit  of  marking  the  price  I 
would  pay  on  each  sketch.  If  the  workman 
lost,  I  would  pay  his  regular  wages;  if  he 
made  more  than  the  wages,  he  kept  it.  The 
workman  who  got  the  sketch  was  John  Kruesi. 
I  didn't  have  much  faith  that  it  would  work, 
expecting  that  I  might  possibly  hear  a  word 
or  so  that  would  give  hope  of  a  future  for  the 
idea.  Kruesi,  when  he  had  nearly  finished  it, 
asked  what  it  was  for.  I  told  him  I  was 
going  to  record  talking,  and  then  have  the 
machine  talk  back.  He  thought  it  absurd. 
However,  it  was  finished;  the  foil  was  put  on; 
I  then  shouted  'Mary  had  a  little  lamb/  etc. 
I  adjusted  the  reproducer,  and  the  machine 
reproduced  it  perfectly.  I  was  never  so  taken 
back  in  my  life.  Everybody  was  astonished. 
I  was  always  afraid  of  things  that  worked  the 
first  time.  Long  experience  proved  that 
there  were  great  drawbacks  found  generally 
before  they  could  be  made  commercial;  but 
here  was  something  there  was  no  doubt  of." 
No  wonder  that  John  Kruesi,  as  he  heard 
the  little  machine  repeat  the  words  that  had 

178 


MAKING    A    MACHINE    TALK 

been  spoken  into  it,  ejaculated  in  an  awe- 
stricken  tone:  "MeinGott  im  Himmel!"  No 
wonder  the  "  boys  "  joined  hands  and  danced 
around  Edison,  singing  and  shouting.  No 
wonder  that  Edison  and  his  associates  sat  up 
all  night  fixing  and  adjusting  it  so  as  to  get 
better  and  better  results — reciting  and  singing 
and  trying  one  another's  voices  and  listening 
with  awe  and  delight  as  the  crude  little 
machine  repeated  the  words  spoken  or  sung 
into  it. 

The  news  quickly  became  public,  and  the 
newspapers  of  the  world  published  columns 
about  this  wonderful  invention.  Mr.  Edison 
was  besieged  with  letters  from  every  part  of 
the  globe.  Every  one  wanted  to  hear  this 
machine;  and  in  order  to  satisfy  a  universal 
demand  for  phonographs  to  be  used  for 
exhibition  purposes,  he  had  a  number  of  them 
made  and  turned  them  over  to  various  individ- 
uals, who  exhibited  them  to  great  crowds 
around  the  country.  These  were  the  ma- 
chines in  which  the  record  was  made  on  a 
sheet  of  tin-foil  laid  around  the  cylinder. 
n)  They  created  great  excitement  both  in 
HJ  America  and  abroad.  The  announcement  of 

179 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 


a  phonograph  concert  was  sufficient  to  fill 
a  hall  with  people  who  were  curious  to  hear 
a  machine  talk  and  sing. 

In  the  next  year,  1878,  Edison  entered 
Upon  his  experiments  in  electric  lighting.  His 
work  in  this  field  kept  him  intensely  busy  for 
nearly  ten  years,  and  the  phonograph  was 
laid  aside  so  far  as  he  was  concerned. 

He  had  not  forgotten  it,  however,  for  he  had 
fully  realized  its  tremendous  possibilities  very 
quickly  after  its  invention.  This  is  shown  by 
an  article  he  wrote  for  the  North  American 
Review,  which  appeared  in  the  summer  of 
1878.  In  that  article  he  predicted  the  possible 


uses  of  the  phonograph,  many  of  which  have 
since  been  fulfilled. 

In  1887,  having  finished  the  greatest  part 
of  his  work  on  the  electric  light,  he  turned  to 
the  phonograph  once  more.  Realizing  that 
the  tin-foil  machine  was  not  an  ideal  type  and 
could  not  come  into  common  use,  he  deter- 
mined to  re-design  it,  and  make  it  an  instru- 
ment that  could  be  handled  by  any  one. 

This  meant  the  design  and  construction  of 
an  entirely  different  type  of  machine,  and 
resulted  in  the  kind  of  phonograph  with  which 


Kj     > 

sg 

o  2 
•a  a 


Co 

00  ^ 
M 


MAKING    A    MACHINE    TALK 

every  one  is  familiar  in  these  modern  days. 
One  of  the  chief  differences  was  the  use  of  a 
wax  cylinder  instead  of  tin-foil,  and,  instead  of 
indenting  with  a  pointed  stylus,  the  record  is 
cut  into  the  wax  with  a  tiny  sapphire,  the 
next  hardest  jewel  to  a  diamond. 

Into  his  improvements  of  the  phonograph 
Mr.  Edison  has  put  an  enormous  amount  of 
time  and  work.  He  has  never  lost  interest, 
but  has  worked  on  it  more  or  less  through  all 
the  intervening  years  up  to  the  present  time. 
Even  during  the  present  year  (1911)  he  has 
expended  a  prodigious  amount  of  energy  in 
improving  the  reproducer  and  other  parts, 
spending  night  after  night,  and  frequently  all 
night,  at  the  laboratory. 

Inasmuch  as  great  quantities  of  phono- 
graphs were  sold,  requiring  millions  of  records, 
one  of  the  difficulties  to  be  overcome  was  to 
make  large  numbers  of  duplicates  from  an 
original  record  made  by  a  singer,  speaker,  or 
band  of  musicians. 

This  difficulty  will  be  perceived  when  it  is 
stated  that  the  record  cut  into  the  wax  cylin- 
der is  hardly  ever  greater  than  one-thousandth 
of  an  inch  deep,  which  is  less  than  the  thick- 

181 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

ness  of  a  sheet  of  tissue  paper,  and  in  a  single 
phonograph  record  there  are  many  millions 
of  sound-waves  so  recorded. 

Through  endless  experiments  of  Edison 
and  his  working  force,  and  with  many  in- 
genious inventions,  however,  these  difficulties 
were  overcome  one  by  one.  At  the  present 
time  the  machinery  and  processes  for  making 
duplicate  records  has  been  so  perfected  that 
the  Edison  factory  at  Orange  has  made  as 
many  as  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand 
in  a  day. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  phonograph  was 
an  invention  so  absolutely  new  that  when  Mr. 
Edison  applied  for  his  original  patent,  in  1877, 
the  Patent  Office  could  not  find  that  any  such 
attempt  had  ever  before  been  made  to  record 
and  reproduce  speech  or  other  sounds,  and  the 
patent  was  granted  immediately.  He  has 
since  taken  out  nearly  one  hundred  patents  on 
improvements. 

The  original  patent  has  long  since  expired, 
and  many  kinds  of  talking-machines  are  now 
made  by  others  also,  but  they  all  operate  on 
the  identical  principle  which  Edison  was  the 
first  to  discover  and  put  into  actual  practice. 

182 


XIII 

A   NEW   LIGHT   IN   THE    WORLD 

IN  these  modern  times  an  incandescent  elec- 
tric lamp  is  such  an  every-day  affair  as  to 
be  a  familiar  object  even  to  a  small  child. 
But  only  a  few  years  ago — a  little  over  thirty 
— the  man  who  proposed  and  invented  it  was 
derided  in  the  newspapers,  and  called  a  mad- 
man and  a  dreamer. 

If  among  Edison 's  numerous  inventions 
there  should  be  selected  one  or  a  class  that 
might  be  considered  the  greatest,  it  seems 
to  be  universal  opinion  that  the  palm  would 
be  awarded  to  the  incandescent  lamp  and  his 
complete  system  for  the  distribution  of  electric 
light,  heat,  and  power.  These  inventions  as  a 
class,  and  what  has  sprung  from  them,  have 
brought  about  most  wonderful  changes  in  the 
world. 

The  year  1877  was  a  busy  one  at  Edison's 
laboratory  at  Menlo  Park.  He  was  engaged 

183 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

on  the  telephone,  on  acoustic  electrical  trans- 
mission, sextuplex  telegraphs,  duplex  tele- 
graphs, miscellaneous  carbon  articles,  and 
other  things.  He  also  commenced  experi- 
menting on  the  electric  light. 

Besides,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  previous 
chapter,  he  invented  the  phonograph.  The 
great  interest  and  excitement  caused  by  the 
latter  invention  took  up  nearly  all  of  his  time 
and  attention  for  many  months,  and,  indeed, 
up  to  July,  1878.  He  then  took  a  vacation 
and  went  out  to  Wyoming  with  a  party  of 
astronomers  to  observe  an  eclipse  of  the  sun 
and  to  make  a  test  of  his  tasimeter. 

He  was  absent  about  two  months,  coming 
home  rested  and  refreshed.  Mr.  Edison  says : 
"  After  my  return  from  the  trip  to  observe 
the  eclipse  of  the  sun  I  went  with  Professor 
Barker,  professor  of  physics  in  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  Dr.  Chandler,  professor 
of  chemistry  in  Columbia  College,  to  see  Mr. 
Wallace,  a  large  manufacturer  of  brass  in 
Ansonia,  Connecticut.  Wallace  at  this  time 
was  experimenting  on  series  arc  lighting.  Just 
at  that  time  I  wanted  to  take  up  something 
new,  and  Professor  Barker  suggested  that  I 

184 


A    NEW    LIGHT    IN    THE    WORLD 

go  to  work  and  see  if  I  could  subdivide  the 
electric  light  so  it  could  be  got  in  small  units 
like  gas.  This  was  not  a  new  suggestion, 
because  I  had  made  a  number  of  experiments 
on  electric  lighting  a  year  before  this.  They 
had  been  laid  aside  for  the  phonograph.  I 
determined  to  take  up  the  search  again  and 
continue  it.  On  my  return  home  I  started 
my  usual  course  of  collecting  every  kind  of 
data  about  gas;  bought  all  the  transactions  of 
the  gas  engineering  societies,  etc.,  all  the  back 
volumes  of  gas  journals,  etc.  Having  ob- 
tained all  the  data,  and  investigated  gas-jet 
distribution  in  New  York  by  actual  observa- 
tions, I  made  up  my  mind  that  the  problem 
of  the  subdivision  of  the  electric  current 
could  be  solved  and  made  commercial." 

The  problem  which  Edison  had  undertaken 
to  solve  was  a  gigantic  one.  The  arc  light  was 
then  known  and  in  use  to  a  very  small  extent, 
but  the  subdivision  of  the  electric  light — as  it 
was  then  called — had  not  been  accomplished. 
It  had  been  the  dream  of  scientists  and  in- 
ventors for  a  long  time. 

Innumerable  trials  and  experiments  had 
been  made  in  America  and  Europe  for  many 

185 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF   EDISON 

years,  but  without  success.  Although  a  great 
number  of  ingenious  lamps  had  been  made 
by  the  foremost  inventors  of  the  period,  they 
were  utterly  useless  as  part  of  a  scheme  for  a 
system  of  electric  lighting.  In  fact,  these 
efforts  had  been  so  unsuccessful  that  many  of 
the  leading  scientists  of  the  time,  even  as  late 
as  1879,  declared  that  the  subdivision  of  the 
light  was  an  impossibility. 

The  chief  trouble  was  that  the  early  experi- 
menters did  not  conceive  the  idea  of  a  system, 
and  worked  only  on  a  lamp.  They  all  seemed 
to  have  the  idea  that  an  electric  lamp  was  the 
main  thing  and  that  it  should  be  of  low  resist- 
ance and  should  be  operated  on  a  current  of 
very  low  voltage,  or  pressure.  They,  there- 
fore experimented  on  lamps  using  short  carbon 
rods  or  strips  for  burners,  which  required  a 
large  quantity  of  current. 

Electric  lighting  with  this  kind  of  lamp 
was  indeed  a  practical  impossibility.  The 
quantity  of  current  required  for  a  large  num- 
ber of  them  would  have  been  prodigious, 
giving  rise  to  tremendous  problems  on  account 
of  the  heating  effects.  Besides,  the  most  fatal 
objection  was  the  cost  of  copper  for  conduc- 

186 


A    NEW    LIGHT    IN   THE    WORLD 

tors,  which  for  a  city  section  of  about  half  a  mile 
square  would  have  cost  not  less  than  a  hundred 
million  dollars,  on  account  of  the  enormous 
quantity  of  current  that  would  be  required. 

Mr.  Edison  realized  at  the  beginning  that 
previous  experimenters  had  failed  because 
they  had  been  following  the  wrong  track. 
He  knew  that  electric  lighting  could  not  be  a 
success  unless  it  could  be  sold  to  the  public  at 
a  reasonable  price  and  pay  a  profit  to  those 
who  supplied  it.  With  such  lamps  as  had 
been  proposed,  requiring  such  an  enormous 
outlay  for  copper,  this  would  have  been 
impossible.  Besides,  there  would  not  have 
been  enough  copper  in  the  world  to  supply 
conductors  for  one  large  city. 

Edison  did  what  he  has  so  often  done  before 
and  since.  He  turned  about  and  went  in  the 
opposite  direction.  He  reasoned  that  in  order 
to  develop  a  successful  system  of  electric 
lighting  the  cost  of  conductors  must  come 
within  very  reasonable  limits.  To  insure 
this,  he  must  invent  a  lamp  of  comparatively 
high  resistance,  requiring  only  a  small  quan- 
tity of  current,  and  with  a  burner  having  a 
small  radiating  surface. 

187 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Having  the  problem  clearly  in  mind,  Edison 
went  to  work  in  the  fall  of  1878  with  that 
enthusiastic  energy  so  characteristic  of  him. 
His  earliest  experiments  were  made  with 
carbon  as  the  burner  for  his  lamp.  In  the 
previous  year  he  had  also  experimented  on 
this  line,  beginning  with  strips  of  carbon 
burned  in  the  open  air,  and  then  in  vacuo  by 
means  of  a  hand-worked  air-pump.  These 
strips  burned  only  a  few  minutes.  On  resum- 
ing his  work  in  1878  he  again  commenced 
with  carbon,  and  made  a  very  large  number  of 
trials,  all  in  vacuo.  Not  only  did  he  try 
ordinary  strips  of  carbonized  paper,  but 
tissue-paper  coated  with  tar  and  lampblack 
was  rolled  into  thin  sticks,  like  knitting- 
needles,  carbonized  and  raised  to  the  white 
heat  of  incandescence  in  vacuo. 

He  also  tried  hard  carbon,  wood  carbon, 
and  almost  every  conceivable  variety  of  paper 
carbon  in  like  manner.  But  with  the  best 
vacuum  that  he  could  then  get  by  means  of 
the  ordinary  hand-pump  the  carbons  would 
last  at  the  most  only  from  ten  to  fifteen 
minutes  in  a  state  of  incandescence. 

It  was  evident  to  Edison  that  such  results  as 


A   NEW    LIGHT    IN   THE    WORLD 

these  were  not  of  commercial  value.  He 
feared  that,  after  all,  carbon  was  not  the  ideal 
substance  he  had  thought  it  was  for  an  incan- 
descent lamp-burner.  The  lamp  that  he  had 
in  mind  was  one  which  should  have  a  tough, 
hair-like  filament  for  a  light-giving  body 
that  could  be  maintained  at  a  white  heat  for 
a  thousand  hours  before  breaking. 

He  therefore  turned  his  line  of  experiments 
to  wires  made  of  refractory  metals,  such  as 
platinum  and  iridium,  and  their  alloys.  These 
metals  have  very  high  fusing  points,  and 
while  they  would  last  longer  than  the  carbon 
strips,  they  melted  with  a  slight  excess  of 
current  after  they  had  been  lighted  but  a 
short  time. 

Nevertheless,  Edison  continued  to  experi- 
ment along  this  line,  making  some  improve- 
ments, until  about  April,  1879,  ne  made  an 
important  discovery  which  led  him  to  the 
first  step  toward  the  modern  incandescent 
lamp.  He  discovered  that  if  he  introduced  a 
piece  of  platinum  wire  into  an  all-glass  globe, 
completely  sealed  and  highly  exhausted  of 
air,  and  passed  a  current  through  the  platinum 
wire  while  the  vacuum  was  being  made  the 

189 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

wire  would  give  a  light  equal  to  twenty-five 
candle-power  without  melting.  Previously, 
the  same  length  of  wire  would  melt  in  the 
open  air  when  giving  a  light  equal  to  four 
candles. 

He  thus  discovered  that  the  passing  of 
current  through  the  platinum  while  the 
vacuum  was  being  obtained  would  drive  out 
occluded  gases  (i.e.  gases  mechanically  held  in 
or  upon  the  metal) .  This  was  important  and 
soon  led  to  greater  results. 

Edison  and  his  associates  had  been  working 
night  and  day  at  the  Menlo  Park  laboratory, 
and  now  that  promising  results  were  ahead 
their  efforts  went  on  with  greater  vigor  than 
ever.  Taking  no  account  of  the  passage  of 
time,  with  an  utter  disregard  of  meal-times, 
and  with  but  scanty  hours  of  sleep  snatched 
reluctantly  at  odd  periods,  Edison  labored  on, 
and  the  laboratory  was  kept  going  without 
cessation. 

Following  up  the  progress  he  had  made, 
Edison  made  improvement  after  improve- 
ment, especially  in  the  line  of  high  vacua,  and 
about  the  beginning  of  October  had  so  im- 
proved his  pumps  that  he  could  produce  a 

190 


A   NEW   LIGHT    IN   THE    WORLD 

vacuum  up  to  the  one-millionth  part  of  an 
atmosphere.  It  should  be  understood  that 
the  maintaining  of  such  a  high  vacuum  was 
only  rendered  possible  by  Edison 's  invention 
of  a  one-piece  all-glass  globe,  hermetically 
sealed  during  its  manufacture  into  a  lamp. 

In  obtaining  this  perfection  of  vacuum 
apparatus  Edison  realized  that  he  was  draw- 
ing nearer  to  a  solution  of  the  problem.  For 
many  reasons,  however,  he  was  dissatisfied 
with  platino-iridium  filaments  for  burners, 
and  went  back  to  carbon,  which  from  the  first 
he  had  thought  of  as  an  ideal  substance  for 
a  burner. 

His  next  step  proved  that  he  was  correct. 
On  October  21,  1879,  after  many  patient  trials, 
he  carbonized  a  piece  of  cotton  sewing-thread 
bent  into  a  loop  or  horseshoe  form,  and  had  it 
sealed  into  a  glass  globe  from  which  he  ex- 
hausted the  air  until  a  vacuum  up  to  one- 
millionth  of  an  atmosphere  was  produced. 
This  lamp,  when  put  on  the  circuit,  lighted  up 
brightly  to  incandescence  and  maintained  its 
integrity  for  over  forty  hours,  and  lo!  the 
practical  incandescent  "IampT~Wa"S  born.  The 

impossible,  so  called,  had  been  attained;  sub- 
is  191 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 


division  of  the  electric  current  was  made 
practicable;  the  goal  had  been  reached,  and 
one  of  the  greatest  inventions  of  the  century 
was  completed. 

Edison  and  his  helpers  stayed  by  the  lamp 
during  the  whole  forty  hours  watching  it, 
some  of  the  men  making  bets  as  to  how  long 
it  would  burn.  It  may  well  be  imagined  that 
there  was  great  jubilation  throughout  the 
laboratory  during  those  two  days  of  delight 
and  anxiety. 

But  now  that  the  principle  was  established 
work  was  renewed  with  great  fervor  in  making 
other  lamps.  A  vast  number  of  experiments 
were  made  with  carbons  made  of  paper,  and 
the  manufacture  of  lamps  with  these  paper 
carbons  was  carried  on  continuously.  A  great 
number  of  these  were  made  and  put  into 
actual  use. 

Edison  was  not  satisfied,  however.  He 
wanted  something  better.  He  began  to  car- 
bonize everything  that  he  could  lay  hands  on. 
In  his  laboratory  note-books  are  innumerable 
jottings  of  the  things  that  were  carbonized 
and  tried,  such  as  tissue-paper,  soft  paper,  all 
kinds  of  cardboards,  drawing  paper  of  all 

192 


A    NEW    LIGHT    IN   THE    WORLD 

grades,  paper  saturated  with  tar,  all  kinds  of 
threads,  fish-line,  threads  rubbed  with  tarred 
lampblack,  fine  threads  plaited  together  in 
strands,  cotton  soaked  in  boiling  tar,  lamp- 
wick,  twine,  tar  and  lampblack  mixed  with  a 
proportion  of  lime,  vulcanized  fiber,  celluloid, 
boxwood,  cocoanut  hair  and  shell,  spruce, 
hickory,  baywood,  cedar,  and  maple  shavings, 
rosewood,  punk,  cork,  bagging,  flax,  and  a 
host  of  other  things. 

He  also  extended  his  searches  far  into  the 
realms  of  nature  in  the  line  of  grasses,  plants, 
canes,  and  similar  products,  and  in  these 
experiments  at  that  time  and  later  he  car- 
bonized, made  into  lamps,  and  tested  no  fewer 
than  six  thousand  different  species  of  vege- 
table growths. 

At  this  time  Edison  was  investigating 
everything  with  a  microscope.  One  day  he 
picked  up  a  palm-leaf  fan  and  examined  the 
long  strip  of  cane  binding  on  its  edge.  He 
gave  it  to  one  of  his  assistants,  telling  him  to 
cut  it  up  into  filaments,  carbonize  them,  and 
put  them  into  lamps. 

These  proved  to  be  the  best  thus  far  ob- 
tained, and  on  further  examination  Edison 

J93 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

decided  that  he  had  now  found  the  best 
material  so  far  tried,  and  a  material  entirely 
suitable  for  his  lamps. 

Within  a  very  short  time  he  sent  a  man  off 
to  China  and  Japan  to  search  for  bamboo, 
with  instructions  to  keep  on  sending  samples 
until  the  right  one  was  found.  This  man  did 
his  work  well,  and  among  the  species  of  bam- 
boo he  sent  was  one  that  was  found  satis- 
factory. Mr.  Edison  obtained  a  quantity  of 
this  and  arranged  with  a  farmer  in  Japan  to 
grow  it  for  him  and  to  ship  regular  supplies. 
This  was  done  for  a  number  of  years,  and 
during  that  time  millions  of  Edison  lamps  were 
regularly  made  from  that  particular  species 
of  Japanese  bamboo. 

Mr.  Edison  did  not  stop  at  this,  however. 
He  was  continually  in  search  of  the  best,  and 
sent  other  men  out  to  Cuba,  Florida,  and  all 
through  South  America  to  hunt  for  something 
that  might  be  superior  to  what  he  was  using. 
Another  man  was  sent  on  a  trip  around  the 
world  for  the  same  purpose. 

Some  of  these  explorers  met  with  striking 
adventures  during  their  travels,  and  all  of 
them  sent  vast  quantities  of  bamboos,  palms, 

194 


A    NEW    LIGHT    IN   THE    WORLD 

and  fibrous  grasses  to  the  laboratory  for 
examination,  but  Edison  never  found  any  of 
them  better  for  his  purposes  than  the  bamboo 
from  Japan. 

In  this  remarkable  exploration  of  the  world 
for  such  a  material  will  be  found  an  example 
of  the  thoroughness  of  Edison's  methods. 
He  is  not  satisfied  to  believe  he  has  the  best 
until  he  has  proved  it,  and  this  search  for  the 
best  bamboo  was  so  thorough  that  it  cost 
him  altogether  about  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars. 

In  the  mean  time  he  was  experimenting  to 
manufacture  an  artificial  filament  that  would 
be  better  than  bamboo.  He  finally  succeeded 
in  his  efforts,  and  brought  out  what  is  known 
as  a  "squirted"  filament.  This  was  made  of 
a  cellulose  mixture  and  pressed  out  in  the 
form  of  a  thread  through  dies.  This  kind  of 
filament  has  gradually  superseded  the  bamboo 
in  the  manufacture  of  lamps. 

We  have  been  obliged  to  confine  ourselves 
to  a  very  brief  outline  history  of  the  invention 
and  development  of  the  incandescent  lamp. 
To  tell  the  detailed  story  of  the  intense  labors 
of  the  inventor  and  his  staff  of  faithful  workers 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

would  require  a  volume  as  large  as  the  present 
one. 

All  that  could  be  done  in  the  space  at  our 
disposal  was  to  try  and  give  the  reader  a 
general  idea  of  the  clear  thinking,  logical 
reasoning,  endless  experimenting,  hard  work, 
and  thoroughness  of  method  of  Edison  in  the 
creation  of  a  new  art. 


XIV 

MENLO    PARK 

TN  the  history  of  the  world's  progress,  Menlo 
*  Park,  New  Jersey,  will  ever  be  famous  as 
the  birthplace  of  the  carbon  transmitter,  the 
phonograph,  the  incandescent  lamp,  the  com- 
mercial dynamo,  and  the  fundamental  systems 
of  distributing  electric  light,  heat,  and  power. 

In  this  list  might  also  be  included  the 
electric  railway,  for  while  others  had  previ- 
ously made  some  progress  in  this  direction,  it 
was  in  this  historic  spot  that  Edison  did  his 
pioneer  work  that  advanced  the  art  to  a  stage 
of  practicability. 

The  name  of  Menlo  Park  will  not  have  as 
striking  a  significance  to  the  younger  readers 
as  to  their  elders  whose  recollections  carry 
them  back  to  the  years  between  1876  and 
1886.  During  that  period  the  place  became 
invested  with  the  glamor  of  romance  by 
reason  of  the  many  startling  and  wonderful 

197 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

inventions  coming  out  of  it  from  time  to 
time. 

Edison  worked  there  during  these  ten 
years.  He  had  adopted  Invention  as  a 
profession.  As  we  have  seen,  he  had  always 
had  a  passion  for  a  laboratory.  Thus,  from 
the  little  cellar  at  Port  Huron,  from  the  scant 
shelves  in  a  baggage  car,  from  the  nooks  and 
corners  of  dingy  telegraph  offices,  and  the 
grimy  little  shops  in  New  York  and  Newark, 
he  had  come  to  the  proud  ownership  of  a  real 
laboratory  where  he  could  wrestle  with  Nature 
for  her  secrets. 

Here  he  could  experiment  to  his  heart's 
content,  and  invent  on  a  bolder  and  larger 
scale  than  ever  before.  All  the  world  knows 
that  he  did. 

Menlo  Park  was  the  merest  hamlet,  located 
a  few  miles  below  Elizabeth.  Besides  the 
laboratory  buildings,  it  had  only  a  few  houses, 
the  best-looking  of  which  Edison  lived  in. 
Two  or  three  of  the  others  were  occupied  by 
the  families  of  members  of  his  staff;  in  the 
others  boarders  were  taken. 

During  the  ten  years  that  Edison  occupied 
his  laboratory  there,  life  in  Menlo  Park  could 

198 


MENLO    PARK 

be  summed  up  in  one  short  word — work. 
Through  the  days  and  through  the  nights, 
year  in  and  year  out,  for  the  most  part,  he  and 
his  associates  labored  on  unceasingly,  snatch- 
ing only  a  few  hours  of  sleep  here  and  there 
when  tired  nature  positively  demanded  it. 
Such  a  scene  of  concentrated  and  fruitful 
activity  the  world  has  probably  never  seen. 

The  laboratory  buildings  consisted  of  the 
laboratory  proper,  the  library  and  office, 
a  machine  shop,  carpenter  shop,  and  some 
smaller  buildings,  and,  later  on,  a  wooden 
building,  which  was  used  for  a  short  time  as  an 
incandescent  lamp  factory. 

Here  Edison  worked  through  those  busy 
years,  surrounded  by  a  band  of  chosen  assist- 
ants, whose  individual  abilities  and  never- 
failing  loyalty  were  of  invaluable  aid  to  him  in 
accomplishing  the  purposes  that  he  had  in 
mind. 

As  to  these  associates,  we  quote  Mr.  Edi- 
son's own  words  from  an  autobiographical 
article  in  the  Electrical  World  of  March  5, 
1904:  "It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  addi- 
tion to  those  mentioned  above  (Charles 
Batchelor  and  Francis  R.  Upton),  I  had 

199 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

around  me  other  men  who  ever  since  have 
remained  active  in  the  field,  such  as  Messrs. 
Francis  Jehl,  William  J.  Hammer,  Martin 
Force,  Ludwig  K.  Boehm,  not  forgetting  that 
good  friend  and  co-worker,  the  late  John 
Kruesi.  They  found  plenty  to  do  in  the 
various  developments  of  the  art,  and  as  I  now 
look  back  I  sometimes  wonder  how  we  did  so 
much  in  so  short  a  time." 

To  this  roll  of  honor  may  be  added  the 
names  of  a  few  others :  The  Carman  brothers, 
Stockton  L.  Griffin,  Dr.  A.  Haid,  John  F.  Ott 
(still  with  Mr.  Edison  at  Orange),  John  W. 
Lawson,  Edward  H.  Johnson,  Charles  L. 
Clarke,  William  Holzer,  James  Hippie,  Charles 
T.  Hughes,  Samuel  D.  Mott,  Charles  T.  Mott, 
E.  G.  Acheson,  Dr.  E.  L.  Nichols,  J.  H.  Vail, 
W.  S.  Andrews,  and  Messrs.  Worth,  Crosby, 
Herrick,  Hill,  Isaacs,  Logan,  and  Swanson. 

To  these  should  be  added  the  name  of 
Mr.  Samuel  Insull,  who,  in  1881,  became 
Mr.  Edison's  private  secretary,  and  who  for 
many  years  afterward  managed  all  his  busi- 
ness affairs. 

Mr.  Insull's  position  as  secretary  in  the 
Menlo  Park  days  was  not  a  "soft  snap/'  as 

200 


MENLO    PARK 

his  own  words  will  show.  He  says:  "  I  never 
attempted  to  systematize  Edison's  business 
life.  Edison's  whole  method  of  work  would 
upset  the  system  of  any  office.  He  was  just 
as  likely  to  be  at  work  in  his  laboratory  at 
midnight  as  midday.  He  cared  not  for  the 
hours  of  the  day  or  the  days  of  the  week.  If 
he  was  exhausted  he  might  more  likely  be 
asleep  in  the  middle  of  the  day  than  in  the 
middle  of  the  night,  as  most  of  his  work  in  the 
way  of  invention  was  done  at  night.  I  used 
to  run  his  office  on  as  close  business  methods 
as  my  experience  admitted,  and  I  would  get 
at  him  whenever  it  suited  his  convenience. 
Sometimes  he  would  not  go  over  his  mail  for 
days  at  a  time,  but  other  times  he  would  go 
regularly  to  his  office  in  the  morning.  At 
other  times  my  engagements  used  to 'be  with 
him  to  go  over  his  business  affairs  at  Menlo 
Park  at  night,  if  I  was  occupied  in  New  York 
during  the  day.  In  fact,  as  a  matter  of 
convenience  I  used  more  often  to  get  at  him 
at  night  as  it  left  my  days  free  to  transact 
his  affairs,  and  enabled  me,  probably  at  a  mid- 
night luncheon,  to  get  a  few  minutes  of  his 
time  to  look  over  his  correspondence  and  get 

201 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

his  directions  as  to  what  I  should  do  in  some 
particular  negotiation  or  matter  of  finance. 
While  it  was  a  matter  of  suiting  Edison's 
convenience  as  to  when  I  should  transact 
business  with  him,  it  also  suited  my  own 
ideas,  as  it  enabled  me  after  getting  through 
my  business  with  him  to  enjoy  the  privilege  o 
watching  him  at  his  work,  and  to  learn  some- 
thing about  the  technical  side  of  matters. 
Whatever  knowledge  I  may  have  of  the 
electric  light  and  power  industry  I  feel  I  owe  it 
to  the  tuition  of  Edison.  He  was  about  the 
most  willing  tutor,  and  I  must  confess  that  he 
had  to  be  a  patient  one/1 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  hard  work 
of  these  times  made  life  a  burden  to  the  small 
family  of  laborers  associated  with  Edison. 
On  the  contrary,  they  were  a  cheerful,  happy 
lot  of  men,  always  ready  to  brighten  up  their 
strenuous  lives  by  the  enjoyment  of  anything 
of  a  humorous  nature  that  came  along. 

Often  during  the  long,  weary  nights  of 
experimenting  Edison  would  call  a  halt  for 
refreshments,  which  he  had  ordered  always  to 
be  sent  in  at  midnight  when  night  work  was  in 
progress.  Everything  would  be  dropped,  all 

202 


MENLO    PARK 

present  would  join  in  the  meal,  and  the  last 
good  story  or  joke  would  pass  arqund. 

Mr.  Jehl  has  written  some  recollections  of 
this  period,  in  which  he  says:  "Our  lunch 
always  ended  with  a  cigar,  and  I  may  mention 
here  that  although  Edison  was  never  fastidious 
in  eating,  he  always  relished  a  good  cigar,  and 
seemed  to  find  in  it  consolation  and  solace. 
...  It  often  happened  that  while  we  were 
enjoying  the  cigars  after  our  midnight  repast, 
one  of  the  boys  would  start  up  a  tune  on  the 
organ  and  we  would  sing  together,  or  one  of 
the  others  would  give  a  solo.  Another  of  the 
boys  had  a  voice  that  sounded  like  something 
between  the  ring  of  an  old  tomato-can  and  a 
pewter  jug.  He  had  one  song  that  he  would 
sing  while  we  roared  with  laughter.  He  was 
also  great  in  imitating  the  tinfoil  phonograph. 
When  Boehm  was  in  good  humor  he  would 
play  his  zither  now  and  then,  and  amuse  us  by 
singing  pretty  German  songs.  On  many  of 
these  occasions  the  laboratory  was  the  rendez- 
vous of  jolly  and  convivial  visitors,  mostly 
old  friends  and  acquaintances  of  Mr.  Edison. 
Some  of  the  office  employees  would  also  drop 
in  once  in  a  while,  and,  as  every  one  present 

203 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

was  always  welcome  to  partake  of  the  mid- 
night meal,  we  all  enjoyed  these  gatherings. 
After  a  while,  when  we  were  ready  to  resume 
work,  our  visitors  would  intimate  that  they 
were  going  home  to  bed,  but  we  fellows  could 
stay  up  and  work,  and  they  would  depart, 
generally  singing  some  song  like  '  Good-night, 
Ladies!'  ...  It  often  happened  that  when 
Edison  had  been  working  up  to  three  or  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning  he  would  lie  down  on 
one  of  the  laboratory  tables,  and  with  nothing 
but  a  couple  of  books  for  a  pillow,  would  fall 
into  a  sound  sleep.  He  said  it  did  him  more 
good  than  being  in  a  soft  bed,  which  spoils  a 
man.  Some  of  the  laboratory  assistants  coulc 
be  seen  now  and  then  sleeping  on  a  table  in 
the  early  morning  hours.  If  their  snoring  be- 
came objectionable  to  those  still  at  work,  the 
'calmer'  was  applied.  This  machine  con- 
sisted of  a  Babbitt's  soap-box  without  a  cover. 
Upon  it  was  mounted  a  broad  ratchet-wheel 
with  a  crank,  while  into  the  teeth  of  the  wheel 
there  played  a  stout,  elastic  slab  of  wood. 
The  box  would  be  placed  on  the  table  where 
the  snorer  was  sleeping  and  the  crank  turned 
rapidly.  The  racket  thus  produced  was  some- 

204 


MENLO    PARK 

thing  terrible,  and  the  sleeper  would  jump  up 
as  though  a  typhoon  had  struck  the  laboratory. 
The  irrepressible  spirit  of  humor  in  the  old 
days,  although  somewhat  strenuous  at  times, 
caused  many  a  moment  of  hilarity  which 
seemed  to  refresh  the  boys,  and  enabled  them 
to  work  with  renewed  vigor  after  its  mani- 
festation." 

The  "boys"  were  ever  ready  for  a  joke  on 
one  of  their  number.  Mr.  Mackenzie,  who 
taught  Edison  telegraphy,  spent  a  great  deal 
of  time  at  the  laboratory.  He  had  a  bushy 
red  beard,  and  was  persuaded  to  give  a  few 
hairs  to  be  carbonized  and  used  for  filaments 
in  experimental  lamps.  When  the  lamps 
were  lighted  the  boys  claimed  that  their 
brightness  was  due  to  the  rich  color  of  the 
hairs. 

The  history  of  the  busy  years  at  Menlo 
Park  would  make  a  long  story  if  told  in  full, 
but  only  a  hint  can  be  given  here  of  the 
gradual  development  of  many  important 
inventions.  These  include  the  innumerable 
experiments  on  the  lamp,  on  different  kinds 
and  weights  of  iron  for  field  magnets  and 
armatures,  on  magnetism,  on  windings  and 

205 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

connections  for  field  magnets  and  armatures, 
on  distribution  circuits,  control,  and  regula- 
tion, and  so  on  through  a  long  list. 

All  these  things  were  new.  There  was 
nothing  in  the  books  to  serve  as  a  guide  in 
solving  these  new  problems,  but  Edison 
patiently  worked  them  out,  one  by  one,  until 
a  complete  system  was  the  result  of  his  labors. 

Menlo  Park  was  historic  in  one  other  par- 
ticular. It  was  the  very  first  place  in  the 
world  to  see  incandescent  electric  lighting 
from  a  central  station. 

The  newspapers  had  been  so  full  of  the 
wonderful  invention  that  there  was  a  great 
demand  to  see  the  new  light.  Edison  decided 
to  give  a  public  exhibition,  and  for  this  pur- 
pose put  up  over  four  hundred  lights  in  the 
streets  and  houses  of  Menlo  Park,  all  con- 
nected to  underground  conductors  which  ran 
to  the  dynamos  in  one  of  the  shop  buildings. 

On  New  Year's  Eve,  1879, the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  ran  special  trains,  and  over  three 
thousand  people  availed  themselves  of  the 
opportunity  to  witness  the  demonstration. 
It  was  a  great  success,  and  gave  rise  to  a  wide 
public  interest. 

206 


MENLO    PARK 

Edison's  laboratory  at  Menlo  Park  had 
never  suffered  for  lack  of  visitors,  but  now 
it  became  a  center  of  attraction  for  scientific 
and  business  men  from  all  parts  of  the  world. 
Pages  of  this  book  could  be  filled  with  the 
names  of  well-known  visitors  at  this  period, 
but  it  would  be  of  no  practical  use  to  give 
them;  besides  we  must  now  pass  on  to  the 
time  when  the  light  was  introduced  to  the 
to  world. 
14 


XV 

BEGINNING  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT  BUSINESS 

*"THE  close  of  the  last  two  chapters  found  us 
*  attending  the  birth  of  an  art  that  was 
then  absolutely  and  entirely  new — the  art  of 
electric  lighting  by  incandescent  lamps.  It 
will  now  be  interesting  to  take  a  brief  glance 
at  the  way  in  which  it  was  introduced  to  the 
world. 

Edison  invented  not  only  a  lamp  and  a 
dynamo,  but  a  complete  system  of  distributing 
electric  light,  heat,  and  power  from  central 
stations.  This  included  a  properly  devised 
network  of  conductors  fed  with  electricity 
from  several  directions  and  capable  of  being 
tapped  to  supply  current  to  each  building; 
a  lamp  that  would  be  cheap,  lasting,  take 
little  current,  be  easy  to  handle,  and  each  to 
be  independent  of  every  other  lamp;  means 
for  measuring  electricity  by  meter;  means  for 
regulating  the  current  so  that  every 

208 


THE    ELECTRIC    LIGHT 

whether  near  to  or  far  away  from  the  station, 
would  give  an  equal  light;  the  designing  of 
new  and  efficient  dynamos,  with  means  for 
connecting  and  disconnecting  and  for  regulat- 
ing and  equalizing  their  loads;  the  providing 
of  devices  that  would  prevent  fires  from 
excessive  current,  and  the  providing  of 
switches,  lamp-holders,  fixtures,  and  the  like. 

This  was  a  large  program  to  fill,  for  it  was 
all  new,  and  there  was  nothing  in  the  world 
from  which  to  draw  ideas,  but  Edison  carried 
out  his  scheme  in  full,  and  much  more  besides. 
By  the  end  of  1880  he  was  ready  to  launch  his 
electric  light  system  for  commercial  use,  and 
the  Edison  Electric  Light  Company,  that  had 
been  organized  for  the  purpose,  rented  a 
mansion  at  No.  65  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York, 
to  be  used  for  offices.  Edison  now  moved 
some  of  his  Menlo  Park  staff  into  that  city  to 
pursue  the  work. 

Right  at  the  very  beginning  a  most  serious 
difficulty  was  met  with.  None  of  the  appli- 
ances necessary  for  use  in  the  lighting  system 
could  be  purchased  anywhere  in  the  world. 

They  were  all  new  and  novel — dynamos, 
switchboards,  regulators,  pressure  and  current 

209 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

indicators,  incandescent  lamps,  sockets,  small 
switches,  meters,  fixtures,  underground  con- 
ductors, junction  boxes,  service  boxes,  man- 
hole boxes,  connectors,  and  even  specially 
made  wire.  Not  one  of  these  things  was  in 
existence ;  and  no  outsider  knew  enough  about 
such  devices  to  make  them  on  order,  except 
the  wire. 

Edison  himself  solved  the  difficulty  by 
raising  some  money  and  establishing  several 
manufacturing  shops  in  which  these  articles 
could  be  made.  The  first  of  all  was  a  small 
factory  at  Menlo  Park  to  make  the  lamps,  Mr. 
Upton  taking  charge  of  that  branch. 

For  making  the  dynamos  he  secured  a 
large  works  on  Goerck  Street,  New  York,  and 
gave  its  management  to  Mr.  Batchelor.  For 
the  underground  conductors  and  their  parts 
a  building  on  Washington  Street  was  rented 
and  the  work  done  under  the  superintendence 
of  Mr.  Kruesi.  In  still  another  factory  build- 
ing there  was  made  the  smaller  appliances, 
such  as  sockets,  switches,  fixtures,  meters, 
safety  fuses  and  other  details.  This  latter 
plant  was  at  first  owned  by  Mr.  Sigmund 
Bergmann,  who  had  worked  with  Edison  on 

210 


THE    ELECTRIC    LIGHT 

telephones  and  phonographs,  but  later  Mr. 
Edison  and  E.  H.  Johnson  became  partners. 

Still  another  difficulty  presented  itself. 
There  were  no  men  who  knew  how  to  do  wiring 
for  electric  lights,  except  those  who  had  been 
with  Edison  at  Menlo  Park.  This  problem 
was  solved  by  opening  a  night-school  at 
No.  65  Fifth  Avenue,  in  which  a  large  number 
of  men  were  educated  and  trained  for  the 
work  by  Edison's  associates.  Many  of  these 
men  have  since  become  very  prominent  in 
electrical  circles. 

Thus,  in  planning  these  matters,  and  in 
guiding  the  operations  in  these  four  shops  in 
New  York,  and  with  all  the  work  he  was  doing 
on  new  experiments  and  inventions  there  and 
at  Menlo  Park,  and  in  making  preparations  for 
the  first  central  station  in  New  York  City, 
Edison  was  a  prodigiously  busy  man.  He 
worked  incessantly,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
he  did  not  average  more  than  four  hours'  sleep 
a  day. 

He  was  the  center  and  the  guiding  spirit  of 
those  intensely  busy  times.  The  aid  of  his 
faithful  associates  was  invaluable  in  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  business,  but  he  was  the  great 

211 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

central  storehouse  of  ideas,  and  it  is  owing  to 
his  undaunted  courage,  energy,  perseverance, 
knowledge  and  foresight,  that  the  foundations 
of  so  great  an  art  have  been  so  well  laid. 

As  has  been  well  said  by  Major  S.  B.  Eaton, 
who  was  president  and  general  manager  of  the 
Edison  Electric  Light  Company  in  its  earliest 
years:  "In  looking  back  on  those  days  and 
scrutinizing  them  through  the  years,  I  am 
impressed  by  the  greatness,  the  solitary  great- 
ness, I  may  say,  of  Mr.  Edison.  We  all  felt 
then  that  we  were  of  importance,  and  that 
our  contribution  of  effort  and  zeal  was  vital. 
I  can  see  now,  however,  that  the  best  of  us 
was  nothing  but  the  fly  on  the  wheel.  Sup- 
pose anything  had  happened  to  Edison  ?  All 
would  have  been  chaos  and  ruin.  To  him, 
therefore,  be  the  glory,  if  not  the  profit." 

Early  in  1881  comparatively  few  people 
had  seen  the  incandescent  light.  In  order 
to  make  the  public  familiar  with  it,  the  Edison 
company  equipped  its  office  building  with 
fixtures  and  lamps,  the  latter  being  lighted  by 
current  from  a  dynamo  in  the  cellar.  In  the 
evenings  the  house  was  thrown  open  to  visitors 
until  ten  or  eleven  o'clock.  Thousands  of 

212 


THE    ELECTRIC    LIGHT 

people  flocked  to  see  the  new  light,  which  in 
those  days  was  regarded  as  wonderful  and 
mysterious,  for  while  the  lamps  gave  a  soft, 
steady  illumination,  there  was  no  open  flame, 
practically  no  heat,  no  danger  of  fire,  and  no 
vitiation  of  air.  For  the  most  part  of  four 
years  the  writer  spent  his  evenings  receiving 
these  visitors  if  no  important  business  was  in 
progress  at  the  moment. 

Mr.  Edison  and  his  shops  had  scarcely  time 
to  get  well  on  their  feet  before  a  rush  of  busi- 
ness set  in.  How  this  business  rapidly  de- 
veloped and  grew  until  it  became  of  very  great 
magnitude  is  a  matter  of  history,  which  we 
shall  not  attempt  to  relate  here. 

Some  idea  of  this  wonderful  development, 
as  it  has  gone  on  through  the  years  that  have 
passed  since  1880,  may  be  formed  when  it  is 
stated  that  at  this  time  (1911)  there  are  about 
forty-five  millions  of  incandescent  lamps  in 
daily  use  in  the  United  States  alone.  Every 
one  of  these  lamps  and  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples upon  which  they  are  operated  rest  upon 
the  foundations  which  Edison  laid  so  well 
more  than  thirty  years  ago. 

One  of  Mr.  Edison's  interesting  stories  of 
213 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

the  early  days  relates  to  the  making  of  the 
lamps.     He  says: 

"  When  we  first  started  the  electric  light  we 
had  to  have  a  factory  for  manufacturing 
lamps.  As  the  Edison  light  company  did 
not  seem  disposed  to  go  into  manufacturing, 
we  started  a  small  lamp  factory  at  Menlo 
Park  with  what  money  I  could  raise  from  my 
other  inventions  and  royalties  and  some 
assistance.  The  lamps  at  that  time  were 
costing  about  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents 
each  to  make,  so  I  said  to  the  company:  'If 
you  will  give  me  a  contract  during  the  life  of 
the  patents  I  will  make  all  the  lamps  re- 
quired by  the  company  and  deliver  them  for 
forty  cents/  The  company  jumped  at  the 
chance  of  this  offer,  and  a  contract  was  drawn 
up.  We  then  bought  at  a  receiver's  sale  at 
Harrison,  New  Jersey,  a  very  large  brick 
factory  building  which  had  been  used  as  an 
oil-cloth  works.  We  got  it  at  a  great  bargain, 
and  only  paid  a  small  sum  down,  and  the 
balance  on  mortgage.  We  moved  the  lamp 
works  from  Menlo  Park  to  Harrison.  The 
first  year  the  lamps  cost  us  about  one  dollar 
and  ten  cents  each.  We  sold  them  for  forty 

214 


THE    ELECTRIC    LIGHT 

cents ;  but  there  were  only  about  twenty  or 
thirty  thousand  of  them.  The  next  year  they 
cost  us  about  seventy  cents,  and  we  sold  them 
for  forty.  There  were  a  good  many,  and  we 
lost  more  money  the  second  year  than  the 
first.  The  third  year  I  succeeded  in  getting 
up  machinery  and  in  changing  the  processes, 
until  it  got  down  so  that  they  cost  somewhere 
around  fifty  cents.  I  still  sold  them  for  forty 
cents,  and  lost  more  money  that  year  than 
any  other,  because  the  sales  were  increasing 
rapidly.  The  fourth  year  I  got  it  down  to 
thirty-seven  cents,  and  I  made  all  the  money 
in  one  year  that  I  had  lost  previously.  I 
finally  got  it  down  to  twenty-two  cents,  and 
sold  them  for  forty  cents ;  and  they  were  made 
by  the  million.  Whereupon  the  Wall  Street 
people  thought  it  was  a  very  lucrative  busi- 
ness, so  they  concluded  they  would  like  to 
have  it,  and  bought  us  out. 

"When  we  formed  the  works  at  Harrison 
we  divided  the  interests  into  one  hundred 
shares  or  parts  at  one  hundred  dollars  par. 
One  of  the  boys  was  hard  up  after  a  time,  and 
sold  two  shares  to  Bob  Cutting.  Up  to  that 
time  we  had  never  paid  anything,  but  we  got 

215 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

around  to  the  point  where  the  board  declared 
a  dividend  every  Saturday  night.  We  had 
never  declared  a  dividend  when  Cutting 
bought  his  shares,  and  after  getting  his  divi- 
dends for  three  weeks  in  succession  he  called 
up  on  the  telephone  and  wanted  to  know  what 
kind  of  a  concern  this  was  that  paid  a  weekly 
dividend.  The  works  sold  for  $1,085,000." 

We  have  been  obliged  to  confine  ourselves  to 
a  very  brief  and  general  description  of  the 
beginnings  of  the  art  of  electric  lighting,  but 
this  chapter  would  not  be  complete  without 
reference  to  Edison's  design  and  construction 
of  the  greatest  dynamo  that  had  ever  been 
made  up  to  that  time. 

The  earliest  dynamos  he  made  would 
furnish  current  only  for  sixty  lamps  of  sixteen 
candle-power  each.  These  machines  were 
belted  up  to  an  engine  or  countershaft.  He 
realized  that  much  larger  dynamos  would  be 
needed  for  central  stations,  and  in  1880  con- 
structed one  in  Menlo  Park,  but  it  was  not 
entirely  successful. 

In  the  spring  of  1881,  however,  he  designed 
a  still  larger  one,  to  be  connected  direct  to  its 
own  engine  and  operated  without  belting. 

216 


THE    ELECTRIC    LIGHT 

Its  capacity  was  to  be  twelve  hundred  lamps, 
instead  of  sixty. 

At  that  time  such  a  project  was  not  dreamed 
of  outside  the  Edison  laboratory,  and  once 
more  he  was  the  subject  of  much  ridicule  and 
criticism  by  those  who  were  considered  as 
experts.  They  said  the  thing  was  impossible 
and  absolutely  impracticable. 

Such  opinions,  however,  have  never  caused 
a  moment's  hesitation  to  Edison  when  he  has 
made  up  his  mind  that  a  thing  can  be  done. 
He  calmly  went  ahead  with  his  plans,  and 
although  he  found  many  difficulties,  he  over- 
came them  all.  He  worked  the  shops  night 
and  day,  until  he  had  built  this  great  machine 
and  operated  it  successfully. 

The  dynamo  was  finished  in  the  summer  of 
1 88 1.  At  that  time  there  was  in  progress  an 
international  Electrical  Exposition  in  Paris, 
at  which  Edison  was  exhibiting  his  system 
of  electric  lighting.  He  had  promised  to  send 
this  great  dynamo  over  to  Paris. 

When  the  dynamo  was  finished  and  tested 
there  were  only  four  hours  to  take  it  and  the 
engine  apart  and  get  all  the  parts  on  board 
the  steamer.  Edison  had  foreseen  all  this, 

217 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

and  had  arranged  to  have  sixty  men  get  to 
work  all  at  once  to  take  it  apart.  Each 
man  had  written  instructions  just  what  to  do, 
and  when  the  machine  was  stopped  every 
man  did  his  own  particular  work  and  the  job 
was  quickly  accomplished 

Arrangements  had  been  made  with  the 
police  for  rapid  passage  through  the  streets 
from  the  shops  to  the  steamship.  The  trucks 
made  quick  time  of  it,  being  preceded  by  a 
wagon  with  a  clanging  bell.  Street  traffic  was 
held  up  for  them,  just  as  it  is  for  engines  and 
hose-carts  going  to  a  fire.  The  dynamo  and 
engine  got  safely  down  to  the  dock  without 
delay  and  were  loaded  on  the  steamer  an  hour 
before  she  sailed. 

This  dynamo  and  engine  weighed  twenty- 
seven  tons,  and  was  then,  and  for  a  long  time 
after,  the  eighth  wonder  of  the  scientific  „ 
world.  Its  arrival  and  installation  in  Paris 
were  eagerly  watched  by  the  most  famous 
scientists  and  electricians  in  Europe. 


XVI 

THE    FIRST   EDISON   CENTRAL   STATION 

PROM  the  beginning  of  his  experiments  on 
*  the  electric  light  Edison  had  one  idea 
ever  in  mind,  and  that  was  to  develop  a  sys- 
tem of  lighting  cities  from  central  stations. 
His  plan  was  to  supply  electric  light  and  power 
in  much  the  same  way  that  gas  is  furnished. 

He  never  forsook  this  idea  for  a  moment. 
Indeed,  it  formed  the  basis  of  all  his  plans, 
although  the  scientific  experts  of  the  time 
predicted  utter  failure.  While  the  experi- 
ments were  going  on  at  Menlo  Park  he  had 
Mr.  Upton  and  others  at  work  making  calcula- 
tions and  plans  for  city  systems. 

Soon  after  he  had  invented  the  incandescent 
lamp  he  began  to  take  definite  steps  toward 
preparing  for  the  first  central  station  in  the 
city  of  New  York.  After  some  consideration, 
he  decided  upon  the  district  included  between 
Wall,  Nassau,  Spruce  and  Ferry  streets,  Peck 

219 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Slip  and  the  East  River,  covering  nearly  a 
square  mile  in  extent. 

He  sent  into  this  district  a  number  of  men, 
who  visited  every  building,  counted  every  gas- 
jet  and  found  out  how  many  hours  per  day 
or  night  they  were  burned. 

These  men  also  ascertained  the  number  of 
business  houses  using  power  and  how  much 
they  consumed.  All  this  information  was 
marked  in  colored  inks  on  large  maps,  so  that 
Edison  could  study  the  question  with  all  the 
details  before  him. 

All  this  work  had  taken  several  months,  but, 
with  this  information  to  guide  him,  the  main 
conductors  to  be  laid  in  the  streets  of  this 
district  were  figured,  block  by  block,  and  the 
results  were  marked  upon  the  maps.  It  was 
found,  however,  that  the  quantity  of  copper 
required  for  these  conductors  would  be  ex- 
ceedingly large  and  costly,  and,  if  ever,  Edi- 
son was  somewhat  dismayed. 

This  difficulty  only  spurred  him  on  to  still 
greater  effort.  Before  long  he  solved  the 
problem  by  inventing  the  "feeder  and  main" 
system,  for  which  he  signed  an  application  for 
patent  on  August  4,  1880. 

32P 


EDISON    CENTRAL    STATION 

By  this  invention  he  saved  seven-eighths  of 
the  amount  of  copper  previously  required. 
So  the  main  conductors  were  figured  again, 
at  only  one-eighth  the  size  they  were  before, 
and  the  results  were  marked  upon  enormous 
new  maps  which  were  now  prepared  for  the 
actual  installation. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  from  the 
very  start  Edison  had  determined  that  his 
conductors  should  be  placed  underground. 
He  knew  that  this  was  the  only  method  for 
permanent  and  satisfactory  service  to  the 
public. 

Our  young  readers  can  scarcely  imagine  the 
condition  of  New  York  streets  at  that  time. 
They  were  filled  with  lines  of  ugly  wooden 
poles  carrying  great  masses  of  telegraph,  tele- 
phone, stock  ticker,  burglar  alarm  and  other 
wires,  in  all  conditions  of  sag  and  decay.  The 
introduction  of  the  arc-lamp  added  another 
series  of  wires  which  with  their  high  potentials 
carried  a  menace  to  life.  Edison  was  the 
first  to  put  conductors  underground,  and  the 
wisdom  of  so  doing  became  so  clear  that  a  few 
years  later  laws  were  made  compelling  others 
to  do  likewise. 

221 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

But  to  return  to  our  story.  Just  before 
Christmas  in  1880  the  Edison  Electric  Illumi- 
nating Company  of  New  York  was  organized, 
and  a  license  was  issued  to  it  for  the  use  of  the 
Edison  patents  on  Manhattan  Island. 

The  work  for  the  new  station  now  com- 
menced in  real  earnest.  A  double  building  at 
255  and  257  Pearl  Street  was  purchased,  and 
the  inside  of  one  half  was  taken  out  and  a 
strong  steel  structure  was  erected  inside  the 
walls. 

Work  on  the  maps  and  plans  for  the  under- 
ground network  of  conductors  was  continued 
at  Menlo  Park.  Mr.  Edison  started  his 
factories  for  making  dynamos,  lamps,  under- 
ground conductors,  sockets,  switches,  meters, 
and  other  details.  Thus,  the  wheels  of  in- 
dustry were  humming  merrily  in  preparation 
for  the  installation  of  the  system.  Every 
detail  received  Edison's  personal  care  and 
consideration.  He  had  plenty  of  competent 
men,  but  he  deemed  nothing  too  small  or 
insignificant  for  his  attention  in  this  important 
undertaking. 

In  the  fall  of  1881  the  laying  of  the  under- 
ground conductors  was  begun  and  pushed 

222 


EDISON    CENTRAL    STATION 

forward  with  frantic  energy.  Here  again 
Edison  left  nothing  to  chance.  Although  he 
had  a  thousand  things  to  occupy  his  mind  he 
also  superintended  this  work.  He  did  not 
stand  around  and  give  orders,  but  worked 
with  the  men  in  the  trenches  day  and  night 
helping  to  lay  tubes,  filling  up  junction  boxes, 
and  taking  part  in  all  the  infinite  detail. 

He  would  work  till  he  felt  the  need  of  a  little 
rest.  Then  he  would  go  off  to  the  station 
building  in  Pearl  Street,  throw  an  overcoat 
on  a  pile  of  iron  tubes,  lie  down  and  sleep  a  few 
lours,  rising  to  resume  work  with  the  first 
gang. 

It  is  worth  pausing  just  a  moment  to  glance 
at  this  man  taking  a  fitful  rest  on  a  pile  of  iron 
pipe  in  a  dingy  building.  His  name  is  on 
the  tip  of  the  world's  tongue.  Distinguished 
scientists  from  every  part  of  Europe  seek  him 
eagerly.  He  has  just  been  decorated  and 
awarded  high  honors  by  the  French  govern- 
ment. He  is  the  inventor  of  wonderful  new 
apparatus  and  the  exploiter  of  novel  and 
successful  arts.  The  magic  of  his  achieve- 
ments and  the  rumors  of  what  is  being  done 
have  caused  a  wild  drop  in  gas  securities 

15  223 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 


and  a  sensational  rise  in  his  own  electric-light 
stock  from  one  hundred  dollars  to  thirty-five 
hundred  a  share.  Yet  these  things  do  not  at 
all  affect  his  slumber  or  his  democratic  sim- 
plicity, for  in  that,  as  in  everything  else,  he  is 
attending  strictly  to  business,  "  doing  the 
thing  that  is  next  to  him." 

The  laying  of  the  underground  conductors 
was  interrupted  by  frost  in  the  winter  of  1881, 
but  in  the  following  spring  the  work  was  re- 
newed with  great  energy  until  there  had  been 
laid  over  eighty  thousand  feet.  In  the  mean 
time  the  buildings  of  the  district  were  being 
wired  for  lamps,  and  the  machine-works  had 
been  busy  on  the  building  of  three  of  the 
"  Jumbo "  dynamos  for  the  station.  These 
were  larger  than  the  great  dynamo  that  had 
been  sent  to  Paris. 

These  three  dynamos  were  installed  in  the 
station,  and  the  other  parts  of  the  system  were 
completed.  A  bank  of  one  thousand  lamps 
was  placed  in  one  of  the  buildings ;  and  in  the 
summer  a  whole  month  was  spent  in  making 
tests  of  the  working  of  the  system,  using  this 
bank  of  lamps  instead  of  sending  current  out 
to  customers'  premises.  Edison  and  his  assis- 

224 


EDISON    CENTRAL    STATION 

tants  made  the  station  their  home  during  this 
busy  month.  They  even  slept  there  on  cots 
that  he  had  sent  to  the  station  for  this  purpose. 

The  system  tested  out  satisfactorily,  and 
finally,  on  September  4,  1882,  at  three  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  the  station  was  started  by 
sending  out  current  from  one  of  the  big  dyna- 
mos through  the  conductors  laid  in  the  streets, 
and  electric  light  was  supplied  for  the  first 
time  to  a  number  of  customers  in  the  district. 

The  station  was  now  started  and  everything 
went  well.  New  customers  were  added  daily, 
and  very  soon  it  became  necessary  to  supply 
more  current.  This  called  for  the  operation 
of  two  dynamos  at  one  time.  As  this  in- 
volved new  problems,  Edison  chose  a  Sunday 
to  try  it,  when  business  places  would  be  closed. 
We  will  let  him  tell  the  story.  He  says: 
"My  heart  was  in  my  mouth  at  first,  but 
everything  worked  all  right.  .  .  .  Then  we 
started  another  engine  and  threw  the  dyna- 
mos in  parallel.  Of  all  the  circuses  since 
Adam  was  born,  we  had  the  worst  then! 
One  engine  would  stop,  and  the  other  would 
run  up  to  about  a  thousand  revolutions,  and 
then  they  would  see-saw.  The  trouble  was 

22$ 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

with  the  governors.  When  the  circus  com- 
menced the  gang  that  was  standing  around 
ran  out  precipitately,  and  I  guess  some  of 
them  kept  running  for  a  block  or  two.  I 
grabbed  the  throttle  of  one  engine,  and  E.  H. 
Johnson,  who  was  the  only  one  present  to 
keep  his  wits,  caught  hold  of  the  other,  and  we 
shut  them  off." 

One  of  the  gang  that  ran,  but,  in  this 
case,  only  to  the  end  of  the  room,  afterward 
said:  "  At  the  time  it  was  a  terrifying  experi- 
ence, as  I  didn't  know  what  was  going  to 
happen.  The  engines  and  dynamos  made  a 
horrible  racket,  from  loud  and  deep  groans  to 
a  hideous  shriek,  and  the  place  seemed  to  be 
filled  with  sparks  and  flames  of  all  colors.  It 
was  as  if  the  gates  of  the  infernal  regions  had 
been  suddenly  opened." 

Edison  attacked  this  problem  in  his  strenu- 
ous way.  Although  it  was  Sunday,  he  sent 
out  and  gathered  his  men  and  opened  the 
machine-works  to  make  new  appliances  to 
overcome  this  trouble. 

Space  will  not  permit  of  telling  all  the 
methods  he  applied  until  the  difficulty  was 
entirely  conquered.  It  was  only  a  short 

226 


EDISON    CENTRAL    STATION 

time,  however,  before  he  was  able  to  operate 
two  or  any  number  of  dynamos  all  together 
as  one,  in  parallel,  without  the  least  trouble. 

This  early  station  grew  and  prospered,  and 
continued  in  successful  operation  for  more 
than  seven  years,  until  January  2,  1890,  when 
it  was  partially  destroyed  by  fire.  This 
occurrence  caused  a  short  interruption  of 
service,  but  in  a  few  days  current  was  again 
supplied  to  customers  as  before,  and  the 
service  has  never  since  ceased. 

Increasing  demands  for  service  soon  after- 
ward led  to  the  construction  of  other  stations 
on  Manhattan  Island,  until  at  the  present 
time  (1911)  the  New  York  Edison  Company 
(the  successor  to  the  Edison  Electric  Illumi- 
nating Company  of  New  York)  is  operating 
thirty-three  stations  and  sub-stations.  These 
supply  current  for  about  108,500  customers, 
wired  for  4,600,000  incandescent  lamps  and 
for  about  287,800  horse -power  in  electric 
motors. 

The  early  success  of  the  first  central  station 
in  New  York  led  to  the  formation  of  new 
companies  in  other  cities,  and  the  installation 
of  many  similar  plants.  The  business  has 

227 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

grown  by  leaps  and  bounds,  until  at  the 
present  time  there  are  many  thousands  of 
central  stations  spread  all  over  the  United 
States,  furnishing  electric  light,  heat,  and 
power,  chiefly  by  use  of  the  principles  elabo- 
rated so  many  years  ago  by  Mr.  Edison. 

We  ought  to  mention  that  this  tremendous 
growth  has  also  been  largely  due  to  another 
invention  made  by  him  in  1882,  called  the 
" three- wire  system."  Its  value  consists  in 
the  fact  that  it  allowed  a  further  saving  of 
sixty-two  and  one-half  per  cent,  of  copper 
required  for  conductors.  This  invention  is  in 
universal  use  all  over  the  world. 

It  may  be  mentioned  here  that  at  the  open- 
ing ceremonies  of  the  Electrical  Exposition  in 
New  York,  on  October  n,  1911,  the  leading 
producers  and  consumers  of  copper  presented 
Mr.  Edison  with  an  inscribed  cubic  foot  of  that 
metal  in  recognition  of  the  stimulus  of  his 
inventions  to  the  industry.  The  inscription 
shows  that  the  yearly  output  of  copper  was 
377,644,000  pounds  at  the  time  of  Edison's 
first  invention  in  1868,  and  in  October,  1911, 
the  yearly  output  had  increased  to  1,910,- 
608,000  pounds. 

228 


XVII 

EDISON'S   ELECTRIC    RAILWAY 

IT  is  quite  likely  that  many  of  our  young 
*  readers  have  never  seen  a  horse-car.  This 
is  not  strange,  for  in  a  little  over  twenty 
years  the  victorious  trolley  has  displaced  the 
old-time  street-cars  drawn  by  one  or  two 
horses.  Indeed,  a  horse-car  is  quite  a  curi- 
osity in  these  modern  days,  for  such  vehicles 
have  almost  entirely  disappeared  from  the 
streets. 

The  first  horse  railroad  in  the  United  States 
was  completed  in  1827,  and  it  was  only  seven 
years  afterward  that  a  small  model  of  a  cir- 
cular electric  railroad  was  made  and  exhibited 
by  Thomas  Davenport,  of  Brandon,  Vermont. 
Other  inventors  also  worked  on  electric  rail- 
ways later  on,  but  they  did  not  make  much 
progress,  because  in  their  day  there  were  no 
dynamos,  and  they  had  to  use  primary  bat- 
teries to  obtain  current.  This  method  of 

229 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

generating  current  was  far  too  cumbersome 
and  expensive  for  general  use. 

In  1879,  after  dynamos  had  become  known, 
the  firm  of  Siemens  exhibited  at  the  Berlin 
Exhibition  a  road  about  one-third  of  a  mile 
in  length,  over  which  an  electric  locomotive 
hauled  three  small  cars  at  a  speed  of  about 
eight  miles  an  hour. 

This  was  just  before  Edison  had  developed 
the  efficient  commercial  dynamo  with  low- 
resistance  armature  and  high-resistance  field, 
which  made  it  possible  to  generate  and  use 
electric  power  cheaply.  Thus  we  see  that 
Edison  was  not  the  first  to  form  the  broad 
idea  of  an  electric  railway,  but  his  dynamo 
and  systems  of  distribution  and  regulation  of 
current  first  made  the  idea  commercially 
practicable. 

When  Edison  made  his  trip  to  Wyoming 
with  the  astronomers  in  1878  he  noticed  that 
the  farmers  had  to  make  long  hauls  of  their 
grain  to  the  railroads  or  markets.  He  then 
conceived  the  idea  of  building  light  electric 
railways  to  perform  this  service. 

As  we  have  already  noted,  he  started  on  his 
electric-light  experiments,  including  the  dyna- 

230 


EDISON'S   ELECTRIC   RAILWAY 

mo,  when  he  returned  from  the  West.  He 
had  not  forgotten  his  scheme  for  an  electric 
railway,  however,  for,  early  in  1880,  after  the 
tremendous  rush  on  the  invention  of  the 
incandescent  lamp  had  begun  to  subside,  he 
commenced  the  construction  of  a  stretch  of 
track  at  Menlo  Park,  and  at  the  same  time 
began  to  build  an  electric  locomotive  to 
operate  over  it. 

The  locomotive  was  an  ordinary  flat  dump- 
car  on  a  four-wheeled  iron  truck.  Upon  this 
was  mounted  one  of  his  dynamos,  used  as  a 
motor.  It  had  a  capacity  of  about  twelve 
horse-power.  Electric  current  was  generated 
by  two  dynamos  in  the  machine-shop,  and 
carried  to  the  rails  by  underground  con- 
ductors. 

The  track  was  about  a  third  of  a  mile  in 
length,  the  rails  being  of  light  weight  and 
spiked  to  ties  laid  on  the  ground.  In  this 
short  line  there  were  some  steep  grades  and 
short  curves.  The  locomotive  pulled  three 
cars ;  one  a  flat  freight-car ;  one  an  open  awn- 
ing-car, and  one  box-car,  facetiously  called 
the  "  Pullman, "  with  which  Edison  illustrated 
a  system  of  electromagnetic  braking. 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

On  May  13,  1880,  this  road  went  into 
operation.  All  the  laboratory  "boys"  made 
holiday  and  scrambled  aboard  for  a  trip. 
Things  went  well  for  a  while,  but  presently 
a  weakness  developed  and  it  became  necessary 
to  return  the  locomotive  to  the  shop  to  make 
changes  in  the  mechanism.  And  so  it  was  for 
a  short  time  afterward.  Imperfections  of  one 
kind  and  another  were  disclosed  as  the  road 
was  operated,  but  Edison  was  equal  to  the 
occasion  and  overcame  them,  one  by  one. 
Before  long  he  had  his  locomotive  running 
regularly,  hauling  the  three  cars  with  freight 
and  passengers  back  and  forth  over  the  full 
length  of  the  track.  Incidentally,  the  writer 
remembers  enjoying  a  ride  over  the  road  one 
summer  afternoon. 

The  details  of  the  various  improvements 
made  during  these  months  are  too  many  and 
too  technical  to  be  given  here.  It  is  a  fact, 
however,  that  at  this  time  Edison  was  doing 
some  heavy  electric  railway  engineering,  each 
improvement  representing  a  step  which  ad- 
vanced the  art  toward  the  perfection  it  has 
reached  in  these  modern  days. 

The  newspapers  and  technical  journals  lost 
232 


EDISON'S   ELECTRIC   RAILWAY 

no  time  in  publishing  accounts  of  this  electric 
railroad,  and  once  again  Menlo  Park  received 
great  numbers  of  visitors,  including  many  rail- 
road men,  who  came  to  see  and  test  this  new 
method  of  locomotion. 

Of  course,  in  operating  this  early  road  there 
were  a  few  mishaps,  fortunately  none  of  them 
of  a  serious  nature.  In  the  correspondence 
of  the  late  Grosvenor  P.  Lowry,  a  friend  and 
legal  adviser  of  Mr.  Edison,  is  a  letter  dated 
June  5,  1880,  giving  an  account  of  one  experi- 
ence. The  letter  reads  as  follows:  "Goddard 
and  I  have  spent  a  part  of  the  day  at  Menlo, 
and  all  is  glorious.  I  have  ridden  at  forty 
miles  an  hour  on  Mr.  Edison's  electric  railway 
— and  we  ran  off  the  track.  I  protested  at 
the  rate  of  speed  over  the  sharp  curves,  de- 
signed to  show  the  power  of  the  engine,  but 
Edison  said  they  had  done  it  often.  Finally, 
when  the  last  trip  was  to  be  taken,  I  said  I  did 
not  like  it,  but  would  go  along.  The  train 
jumped  the  track  on  a  short  curve,  throwing 
Kruesi,  who  was  driving  the  engine,  with  his 
face  down  in  the  dirt,  and  another  man  in  a 
comical  somersault  through  some  underbrush. 
Edison  was  off  in  a  minute,  jumping  and 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF   EDISON 

laughing,  and  declaring  it  a  most  beautiful 
accident.  Kruesi  got  up,  his  face  bleeding, 
and  a  good  deal  shaken;  and  I  shall  never 
forget  the  expression  of  voice  and  face  in  which 
he  said,  with  some  foreign  accent:  'Oh  yes! 
pairfeckly  safe.'  Fortunately  no  other  hurts 
were  suffered,  and  in  a  few  minutes  we  had 
the  train  on  the  track  and  running  again.*' 

This  first  electric  railway  was  continued  in 
operation  right  along  through  1881.  In  the 
fall  of  that  year  Edison  was  requested  by  the 
late  Mr.  Henry  Villard  to  build  a  longer  road 
at  Menlo  Park,  equipped  with  more  powerful 
locomotives,  to  demonstrate  the  feasibility  of 
putting  electric  railroads  in  the  Western  wheat 
country. 

Work  was  commenced  at  once,  and  early  in 
1882  the  road  and  its  equipment  were  finished. 
It  was  three  miles  long,  and  had  sidings,  turn- 
tables, freight  platform  and  car-house.  It 
was  much  more  complete  and  substantial 
than  the  first  railroad.  There  were  two 
locomotives,  one  for  freight  and  the  other  for 
passenger  service. 

The  passenger  locomotive  was  very  speedy 
and  hauled  as  many  as  ninety  persons  at  a 

234 


EDISON'S   ELECTRIC    RAILWAY 

ime.     Many  thousands  of  passengers  traveled 
iver   the    road    during    1882.      The    freight 
ocomotive  was  not  so  speedy,  but  could  pull 
eavy  trains  at  a  good  speed.     Taken  alto- 
ther,  this  early  electric  railway  made  a  great 
vance  toward  modern  practice  as  it  exists 
-day. 

There  are  many  interesting  stories  of  the 
ilway  period  at  Menlo  Park.     One  of  them, 
,s  told  by  the  late  Charles  T.  Hughes,  who 
orked  with  Edison  on  the  experimental  roads, 
as  follows:   "Mr.  Villard  sent  J.  C.  Hender- 
n,  one  of  his  mechanical  engineers,  to  see  the 
ad  when  it  was  in  operation,  and  we  went 
own  one  day — Edison,  Henderson,  and  I — 
nd  went  on  the  locomotive.     Edison  ran  it, 
and  just  after  we  started  there  was  a  trestle 
sixty  feet  long  and  seven  feet  deep,  and  Edison 
Q'     put  on  all  the  power.     When  we  went  over  it 
we  must  have  been  going  forty  miles  an  hour, 
and  I  could  see  the  perspiration  come  out  on 
Henderson.     After  we  got   over  the  trestle 
and  started  on  down  the  track   Henderson 
said :  '  When  we  go  back  I  will  walk.     If  there 
is  any  more  of  that  kind  of  running  I  won't  be 
:a     in  it  myself/" 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

The  young  reader,  who  is  now  living  in  an 
age  in  which  the  electric  railway  is  regarded 
as  a  matter  of  course,  will  find  it  difficult  to 
comprehend  that  there  should  ever  have  been 
any  doubt  on  the  part  of  engineering  experts 
as  to  the  practicability  of  electric  railroads. 
But  in  the  days  of  which  we  are  writing  such 
was  the  case,  as  the  following  remarks  of 
Mr.  Edison  will  show:  "At  one  time  Mr. 
Villard  got  the  idea  that  he  would  run  the 
mountain  division  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  by  electricity.  He  asked  me  if  it 
could  be  done.  I  said:  *  Certainly;  it  is  too 
easy  for  me  to  undertake ;  let  some  one  else  do 
it.'  He  said:  'I  want  you  to  tackle  the 
problem/  and  he  insisted  on  it.  So  I  got  up  a 
scheme  of  a  third  rail  and  shoe  and  erected  it 
in  my  yard  here  in  Orange.  When  I  got  it  all 
ready  he  had  all  his  division  engineers  come 
on  to  New  York,  and  they  came  over  here. 
I  showed  them  my  plans,  and  the  unanimous 
decision  of  the  engineers  was  that  it  was 
absolutely  and  utterly  impracticable.  That 
system  is  on  the  New  York  Central  now,  and 
was  also  used  on  the  New  Haven  road  in  its 
first  work  with  electricity. '? 


EDISON'S   ELECTRIC   RAILWAY 

Mr.  Edison  knew  at  the  time  that  these 
engineers  were  wrong.  They  were  prejudiced 
and  lacking  in  foresight,  and  had  no  faith  in 
electric  railroading.  Indeed,  these  particular 
engineers  were  not  by  any  means  the  only 
persons  who  could  see  no  future  for  electric 
methods  of  transportation.  Their  doubts 
were  shared  by  capitalists  and  others,  and  it 
was  not  until  several  years  afterward  that  the 
business  of  electrifying  street  railroads  was 

rmmenced  in  real  earnest. 
In  the  mean  time,  however,  Edison's  faith 
did  not  waver,  and  he  continued  his  work  on 
electric  railways,  making  innumerable  experi- 
ments and  taking  out  a  great  many  patents, 
including  a  far-sighted  one  covering  a  sliding 
contact  in  a  slot.  This  principle  and  many  of 
those  covered  by  his  earlier  work  are  in  use 
to-day  on  the  street  railways  in  large  cities. 

The  early  railroad  at  Menlo  Park  has  gone  to 
ruin  and  decay,  but  the  crude  locomotive  built 
by  Edison  has  become  the  property  of  the 
Pratt  Institute,  of  Brooklyn,  New  York,  to 
whose  students  it  is  a  constant  example  and 
incentive. 

Down  to  the  present  moment  Edison  has 
237 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

kept  up  an  active  interest  in  transporation 
problems.  His  latest  work  has  been  in  the 
line  of  operating  street-cars  with  his  improved 
storage  battery.  During  the  time  that  this 
book  has  been  in  course  of  preparation  he  has 
given  a  great  deal  of  time  to  this  question. 

Some  years  ago  there  were  a  number  of 
street-cars  in  various  cities  operated  by  storage 
batteries  of  a  class  entirely  different  from  the 
battery  invented  by  Edison.  We  refer  to 
storage  batteries  containing  lead  and  sulphuric 
acid.  These  were  found  to  be  so  costly  to 
operate  and  maintain  that  their  use  was 
abandoned. 

Mr.  Edison's  new  nickel  and  iron  storage 
battery  with  alkaline  solution  has  been  found 
by  practical  use  to  be  entirely  satisfactory 
for  operating  street-cars,  not  only  at  a  low 
cost,  but  also  with  ease  of  operation  and  at  a 
trifling  expense  for  maintenance.  Of  course 
there  have  been  many  problems,  but  he  has 
surmounted  the  principal  difficulties,  and  there 
are  now  quite  a  number  of  street-cars  operated 
by  his  storage  battery  in  various  cities.  These 
cars  are  earning  profits  and  their  number  is 
steadily  increasing. 

238 


XVIII 

GRINDING   MOUNTAINS   TO   DUST 

f^vN  walking  along  the  sea-shore  the  reader 
^^  may  have  noticed  occasional  streaks  or 
patches  of  bluish-black  sand,  somewhat  like 
gunpowder  in  appearance.  It  is  carried  up 
from  the  bed  of  the  sea  and  deposited  by  the 
waves  on  the  shore  to  a  greater  or  lesser  ex- 
tent on  many  beaches. 

If  a  magnet  be  brought  near  to  this  "  black 
sand"  the  particles  will  be  immediately  at- 
tracted to  it,  just  as  iron  filings  would  be  in 
such  a  case.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  these  par- 
ticles of  black  sand  are  grains  of  finely  di- 
vided magnetic  iron  in  a  very  pure  state. 

Now,  if  we  should  take  a  piece  of  magnetic 
iron  ore  in  the  form  of  a  rock  and  grind  it  to 
powder  the  particles  of  iron  could  be  separated 
from  the  ground-up  mass  by  drawing  them 
out  with  a  magnet,  just  as  they  could  be 

drawn  out  of  a  heap  of  sea-shore  sand.     If 
16  239 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

all  the  grains  of  iron  were  thus  separated 
and  put  together,  or  concentrated,  they  would 
be  called  concentrates. 

During  the  last  century  a  great  many  ex- 
perimenters besides  Edison  attempted  to 
perfect  various  cheap  methods  of  magnetic- 
ally separating  iron  ores,  but  until  he  took  up 
the  work  on  a  large  scale  no  one  seems  to  have 
realized  the  real  meaning  of  the  tremendous 
problems  involved. 

The  beginning  of  this  work  on  the  part  of 
Edison  was  his  invention  in  1880  of  a  peculiar 
form  of  magnetic  separator.  It  consisted  of 
a  suspended  V-shaped  hopper  with  an  ad- 
justable slit  along  the  pointed  end.  A  long 
electromagnet  was  placed,  edgewise,  a  little 
below  the  hopper,  and  a  bin  with  a  dividing 
partition  in  the  center  was  placed  on  the 
floor  below. 

Crushed  ore,  or  sand,  was  placed  in  the 
hopper.  If  there  was  no  magnetism  this 
fine  material  would  flow  down  in  a  straight 
line  past  the  magnet  and  fill  the  bin  on  one 
side  of  the  partition.  If,  however,  the  mag- 
net were  active  the  particles  of  iron  would  be 
attracted  out  of  the  line  of  the  falling 

240 


GRINDING    MOUNTAINS 

terial,  but  their  weight  would  carry  them 
beyond  the  magnet  and  they  would  fall  to  the 
other  side  of  the  partition.  Thus,  the  ma- 
terial would  be  separated,  the  grains  of  iron 
going  to  one  side  and  the  grains  of  rock  or 
sand  to  the  other  side. 

This  separator,  as  afterward  modified,  was 
the  basis  of  a  colossal  enterprise  conducted  by 
Mr.  Edison,  as  we  shall  presently  relate.  But 
first  let  us  glance  at  an  early  experiment  on 
the  Atlantic  sea-shore  in  1881,  as  mentioned 
by  him.  He  says: 

"  Some  years  ago  I  heard  one  day  that  down 
at  Quogue,  Long  Island,  there  were  immense 
deposits  of  black  magnetic  sand.  This  would 
be  very  valuable  if  the  iron  could  be  separated 
from  the  sand.  So  I  went  down  to.  Quogue 
with  one  of  my  assistants  and  saw  there  for 
miles  large  beds  of  black  sand  on  the  beach 
in  layers  from  one  to  six  inches  thick — hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  tons.  My  first  thought 
was  that  it  would  be  a  very  easy  matter  to 
concentrate  this,  and  I  found  I  could  sell  the 
stuff  at  a  good  price.  I  put  up  a  small  mag- 
netic separating  plant,  but  just  as  I  got  it 
started  a  tremendous  storm  came  up,  and 

241 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

every  bit  of  that  black  sand  went  out  to  sea. 
During  the  twenty-eight  years  that  have  in- 
tervened it  has  never  come  back." 

In  the  same  year  a  similar  separating  plant 
was  put  up  and  worked  on  the  Rhode  Island 
shore  by  the  writer  under  Mr.  Edison's  direc- 
tion. More  than  one  thousand  tons  of  con- 
centrated iron  ore  of  fine  quality  were  sepa- 
rated from  sea-shore  sand  and  sold.  It  was 
found,  however,  that  it  could  not  be  success- 
fully used  on  account  of  being  so  finely 
divided.  Had  this  occurred  a  few  years 
later,  when  Edison  invented  a  system  of  put- 
ting this  fine  ore  into  briquettes,  that  part  of 
the  story  might  have  been  different. 

Magnetic  separation  of  ores  was  allowed  to 
rest  for  many  years  after  this,  so  far  as 
Edison  was  concerned.  He  was  intensely 
busy  on  the  electric  light,  electric  railway,  and 
other  similar  problems  until  1888,  and  then 
undertook  the  perfecting  and  manufacturing 
of  his  improved  phonograph,  and  other  mat- 
ters. Somewhere  about  1890,  however,  he 
again  took  up  the  subject  of  ore-separation. 

For  some  years  previous  to  that  time  the 
Eastern  iron-mills  had  been  suffering  because 

242 


GRINDING    MOUNTAINS 

of  the  scarcity  of  low-priced  high-grade  ores. 
If  low-grade  ores  could  be  crushed  and  the 
iron  therein  concentrated  and  sold  at  a  reason- 
able price  the  furnaces  would  be  benefited. 
Edison  decided,  after  mature  deliberation,  that 
if  these  low-grade  ores  were  magnetically 
separated  on  a  colossal  scale  at  a  low  cost  the 
furnace-men  could  be  supplied  with  the  much- 
desired  high  quality  of  iron  ore  at  a  price 
which  would  be  practicable. 

He  appreciated  the  fact  that  it  was  a  serious 
and  gigantic  problem,  but  was  fully  satisfied 
that  he  could  solve  it.  He  first  planned  a 
great  magnetic  survey  of  the  East,  with  the 
object  of  locating  large  bodies  of  magnetic 
iron  ore.  This  survey  was  the  greatest  and 
most  comprehensive  of  the  kind  ever  made. 
With  a  peculiarly  sensitive  magnetic  needle 
to  indicate  the  presence  of  magnetic  ore  in  the 
earth,  he  sent  out  men  who  made  a  survey  of 
twenty-five  miles  across  country,  all  the  way 
from  lower  Canada  to  North  Carolina. 

Edison  says :  "  The  amount  of  ore  disclosed 
by  this  survey  was  simply  fabulous.  How 
much  so  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  in 
the  three  thousand  acres  immediately  sur- 

243 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

rounding  the  mills  that  I  afterward  established 
at  Edison,  New  Jersey,  there  were  over  two 
hundred  million  tons  of  low-grade  ore.  I  also 
secured  sixteen  thousand  acres  in  which  the 
deposit  was  proportionately  as  large.  These 
few  acres  alone  contained  sufficient  ore  to 
supply  the  whole  United  States  iron  trade, 
including  exports,  for  seventy  years/' 

Given  a  mountain  of  rock  containing  only 
one-fifth  to  one-fourth  magnetic  iron,  the 
broad  problem  confronting  Edison  resolved 
itself  into  three  distinct  parts — first,  to  tear 
down  the  mountain  bodily  and  grind  it  to 
powder;  second,  to  extract  from  this  powder 
the  particles  of  iron  mingled  in  its  mass;  and 
third,  to  accomplish  these  results  at  a  cost 
sufficiently  low  to  give  the  product  a  com- 
mercial value. 

From  the  start  Edison  realized  that  in  order 
to  carry  out  this  program  there  would  have 
to  be  automatic  and  continuous  treatment  of 
the  material,  and  that  he  would  have  to  make 
the  fullest  possible  use  of  natural  forces,  such 
as  gravity  and  momentum.  The  carrying 
out  of  these  principles  and  ideas  gave  rise  to 
some  of  the  most  brilliant  engineering  work 

244 


GRINDING    MOUNTAINS 

that  has  ever  been  done  by  Edison.  During 
this  period  he  also  made  many  important  in- 
ventions, of  which  several  will  now  be  men- 
tioned. 

As  he  proposed  to  treat  enormous  masses 
of  material,  one  of  the  chief  things  to  be  done 
was  to  provide  for  breaking  the  rock  and 
crushing  it  to  powder  rapidly  and  cheaply. 
After  some  experimenting,  he  found  there 
was  no  machinery  to  be  bought  that  would  do 
the  work  as  it  must  be  done.  He  was  there- 
fore compelled  to  invent  a  series  of  machines 
for  the  purpose. 

The  first  of  these  was  an  invention  quite 
characteristic  of  Edison's  daring  and  boldness. 
It  embraced  a  gigantic  piece  of  mechanism, 
called  the  "Giant  Rolls/'  which  was  designed 
to  break  up  pieces  of  rock  that  might  be  as 
large  as  an  ordinary  upright  piano,  and  weigh- 
ing as  much  as  eight  tons. 

A  pair  of  iron  cylinders  five  feet  long  and 
six  feet  in  diameter,  covered  with  steel  knobs, 
were  set  fifteen  inches  apart  in  a  massive 
frame.  The  rolls  weighed  about  seventy  tons. 
By  means  of  a  steam  engine  these  rolls  were 
revolved  in  opposite  directions  until  they 

245 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

attained  a  peripheral  speed  of  about  a  mile 
a  minute.  Then  the  rocks  were  dumped  into 
a  hopper  which  guided  them  between  the 
rolls,  and  in  a  few  seconds,  with  a  thunderous 
noise,  they  were  reduced  to  pieces  about  the 
size  of  a  man's  head.  The  belts  were  released 
by  means  of  slipping  friction  clutches  when 
the  load  was  thrown  on  the  rolls,  the  breaking 
of  the  rocks  being  accomplished  by  momentum 
and  kinetic  energy. 

The  broken  rock  then  passed  through 
similar  rolls  of  a  lesser  size,  by  means  of  which 
it  was  reduced  to  much  smaller  pieces.  These 
in  their  turn  passed  through  a  series  of  other 
machines  in  which  they  were  crushed  to  fine 
powder.  Here  again  Edison  made  another 
remarkable  invention,  called  the  ''Three-High 
Rolls,"  for  reducing  the  rock  to  fine  powder. 
The  best  crushers  he  had  been  able  to  buy  had 
an  efficiency  of  only  eighteen  per  cent,  and  a 
loss  by  friction  of  eighty-two  per  cent.  By 
his  invention  he  reversed  these  figures  and 
obtained  a  working  efficiency  of  eighty-four 
per  cent,  and  reduced  the  loss  to  sixteen  per 
cent. 

The  problems  of  drying  and  screening  the 
246 


EDISON  AT  THE  OFFICE  DOOR  OF  THE   ORE-CONCENTRATING   PLANT  AT 
EDISON,    NEW   JERSEY,   IN    THE    NINETIES 


GRINDING    MOUNTAINS 


broken  and  crushed  material  were  also  solved 
most  ingeniously  by  Edison's  inventive  skill 
and  engineering  ability,  and  always  with  the 
idea  and  purpose  in  mind  of  accomplishing 
these  results  by  availing  himself  to  the  utmost 
of  one  of  the  great  forces  of  Nature — gravity. 

The  great  extent  of  the  concentrating 
works  may  be  imagined  when  we  state  that 
two  hundred  and  fifty  tons  of  material  per 
hour  could  be  treated.  Altogether,  there 
were  about  four  hundred  and  eighty  immense 
magnetic  separators  in  the  plant,  through 
which  this  crushed  rock  passed  after  going 
through  the  numerous  crushing,  drying,  and 
screening  processes. 

If  it  had  been  necessary  to  transfer  this 
tremendous  quantity  of  material  from  place 
to  place  by  hand  the  cost  would  have  been 
too  great.  Edison,  therefore,  designed  an 
original  and  ingenious  system  of  mechanical 
belt  conveyors  that  would  automatically  re- 
ceive and  discharge  their  loads  at  appointed 
places  in  the  works,  covering  about  a  mile  in 
transit.  They  went  up  and  down,  winding 
in  and  out,  turning  corners,  delivering  ma- 
terial from  one  bin  to  another,  making  a 

247 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

number  of  loops  in  the  drying-oven,  filling  up 
bins,  and  passing  on  to  the  next  one  when  full. 
In  fact,  these  conveyors  in  automatic  action 
seemed  to  play  their  part  with  human  in- 
telligence. 

We  have  been  able  to  take  only  a  passing 
glance  at  the  great  results  achieved  by  Edison 
in  his  nine  years'  work  on  this  remarkable 
plant  —  a  work  deserving  of  most  serious 
study.  The  story  would  be  incomplete,  how- 
ever, if  we  did  not  mention  his  labors  on 
putting  the  fine  ore  in  the  form  of  solid 
briquettes. 

When  the  separated  iron  was  first  put  on  the 
market  it  was  found  that  it  could  not  be  used 
in  that  form  in  the  furnaces.  Edison  was 
therefore  obliged  to  devise  some  other  means 
to  make  it  available.  After  a  long  series  of 
experiments  he  found  a  way  of  putting  it  into 
the  form  of  small,  solid  briquettes.  These 
answered  the  purpose  exactly. 

This  called  for  a  line  of  new  machinery, 
which  he  had  to  invent  to  carry  out  the  plan. 
When  this  was  completed,  the  great  rocks 
went  in  at  one  end  of  the  works  and  a  stream 
of  briquettes  poured  out  of  the  other  end, 

248 


GRINDING    MOUNTAINS 

being  made  by  each  briquetting  machine  at 
the  rate  of  sixty  per  minute. 

Thus,  with  never-failing  persistence,  in- 
finite patience,  intense  thought  and  hard 
work,  Edison  met  and  conquered,  one  by  one, 
the  difficulties  that  had  confronted  him. 
Furnace  trials  of  his  briquettes  proved  that 
they  were  even  better  than  had  been  antici- 
pated. He  had  received  some  large  orders 
for  them  and  was  shipping  them  regularly. 
Everything  was  bright  and  promising,  when 
there  came  a  fatal  blow. 

The  discovery  of  rich  Bessemer  ore  in  the 
Mesaba  range  of  mountains  in  Minnesota  a 
few  years  before  had  been  followed  by  the 
opening  of  the  mines  there  about  this  time. 
As  this  rich  ore  could  be  sold  for  three  dollars 
and  fifty  cents  per  ton,  as  against  six  dollars 
and  fifty  cents  per  ton  for  Edison's  briquettes, 
his  great  enterprise  must  be  abandoned  at 
the  very  moment  of  success. 

It  was  a  sad  blow  to  Edison's  hopes.  He 
had  spent  nine  years  of  hard  work  and  about 
two  millions  of  his  own  money  in  the  great 
work  that  had  thus  been  brought  to  nought 
through  no  fault  of  his.  The  project  had 

249 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

lain  close  to  his  heart  and  ambition,  indeed 
he  had  put  aside  almost  all  other  work  and 
inventions  for  a  while. 

For  five  of  the  nine  years  he  had  lived  and 
worked  steadily  at  Edison  (the  name  of  the 
place  where  the  works  were  located),  leaving 
there  only  on  Saturday  night  to  spend  Sun- 
day at  his  home  in  Orange,  and  returning  to 
the  plant  by  an  early  train  on  Monday  morn- 
ing. Life  at  Edison  was  of  the  simple  kind — 
work,  meals,  and  a  few  hours'  sleep  day  by 
day,  but  Mr.  Edison  often  says  he  never  felt 
better  than  he  did  during  those  five  years. 

After  careful  investigations  and  calculations 
it  was  decided  to  close  the  plant.  Mr.  W.  S. 
Mallory,  his  close  associate  during  those  years 
of  the  concentrating  work,  says:  "The  plant 
was  heavily  in  debt,  and,  as  Mr.  Edison  and 
I  rode  on  the  train  to  Orange,  plans  were  dis- 
cussed as  to  how  to  make  enough  money  to 
pay  off  the  debt.  Mr.  Edison  stated  most 
positively  that  no  company  with  which  he 
had  been  personally  actively  connected  had 
ever  failed  to  pay  its  debts,  and  he  did  not 
propose  to  have  the  concentrating  company 
any  exception. 

250 


GRINDING    MOUNTAINS 

*  We  figured  carefully  over  the  probabilities 
of  financial  returns  from  the  phonograph 
works  and  other  enterprises,  and,  after  dis- 
cussing many  plans,  it  was  finally  decided 
that  we  would  apply  the  knowledge  we  had 
gained  in  the  concentrating  plant  to  building 
a  plant  for  manufacturing  Portland  cement, 
and  that  Mr.  Edison  would  devote  his  atten- 
tion to  the  developing  of  a  storage  battery 
which  did  not  use  lead  and  sulphuric  acid. 

"  He  started  in  with  the  maximum  amount 
of  enthusiasm  and  ambition,  and  in  the  course 
of  about  three  years  we  succeeded  in  paying 
off  the  indebtedness  of  the  concentrating 
Works. 

"  As  to  the  state  of  Mr.  Edison's  mind  when 
the  final  decision  was  reached  to  close  down, 
if  he  was  specially  disappointed  there  was 
nothing  in  his  manner  to  indicate  it,  his  every 
thought  being  for  the  future." 

In  this  attitude  we  find  a  true  revelation  of 
one  conspicuous  trait  in  Mr.  Edison.  No  one 
ever  cried  less  over  spilled  milk  than  he.  He 
had  spent  a  fortune  and  had  devoted  nine 
years  of  his  life  to  the  most  intense  thought 
and  labor  in  the  creation  and  development  of 

251 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

this  vast  enterprise.  He  had  made  many  re- 
markable inventions  and  had  achieved  a  very 
great  success,  only  to  see  the  splendid  results 
swept  away  in  a  moment.  He  did  not  sit 
down  and  bewail  his  lot,  but  with  true  phil- 
osophy and  greatness  of  mind  applied  him- 
self with  characteristic  energy  to  new  work 
through  which  he  might  be  able  to  open  up  a 
more  promising  future. 


XIX 

EDISON    MAKES   PORTLAND   CEMENT 

ENG  before  Edison  ever  thought  of  going 
into  the  manufacture  of  cement  he  had 
very  pronounced  opinions  of  its  value  for 
building  purposes.  More  than  twenty-five 
years  ago,  during  a  discussion  on  ancient 
buildings,  he  remarked:  "Wood  will  rot, 
stone  will  chip  and  crumble,  bricks  disinte- 
grate, but  a  cement  and  iron  structure  is  ap- 
parently indestructible.  Look  at  some  of  the 
old  Roman  baths.  They  are  as  solid  as  when 
they  were  built. " 

With  such  convictions,  and  the  vast  fund  of 
practical  knowledge  and  experience  he  had 
gained  at  Edison  in  the  crushing  and  handling 
of  enormous  masses  of  finely  divided  material, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  he  should  have  decided 
to  engage  in  the  manufacture  of  cement. 

He  was  fully  aware  of  the  fact  that  he  was 
proposing  to  "butt  into"  an  old-established 

253 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

industry,  in  which  the  principal  manufactur- 
ers were  concerns  which  had  been  in  business 
for  a  long  time.  He  knew  there  were  great 
problems  to  be  solved,  both  in  manufacturing 
and  selling  the  cement.  These  difficulties, 
however,  only  made  the  proposition  more  in- 
viting to  him. 

Edison  followed  his  usual  course  of  reading 
up  all  the  literature  on  the  subject  that  he 
could  find,  and  seeking  information  from  all 
quarters.  After  thorough  study  he  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  with  his  improved  meth- 
ods of  handling  finely  crushed  material,  and 
with  some  new  inventions  and  processes  he 
had  in  mind,  he  could  go  into  the  cement 
business  and  succeed  in  making  a  finer  quality 
of  product.  As  we  shall  see  later,  he  "made 
good." 

This  study  of  the  cement  proposition  took 
place  during  the  first  few  months  of  his  ex- 
perimenting on  a  new  storage  battery.  In 
the  mean  time  Mr.  Mallory  had  been  busy 
arranging  for  the  formation  of  a  company 
with  the  necessary  money  to  commence  and 
carry  on  the  business.  One  day  he  went  to 
the  laboratory  and  told  Mr.  Edison  that 

254 


PORTLAND    CEMENT 

everything  was  ready  and  that  it  was  now 
time  to  engage  engineers  to  lay  out  the  works. 

To  this  Edison  replied  that  he  intended  to 
do  that  himself,  and  invited  Mr.  Mallory  to 
go  with  him  to  one  of  the  draughting-rooms 
up-stairs.  Here  Edison  placed  a  sheet  of 
paper  on  a  draughting-table  and  immediately 
began  to  draw  out  a  plan  of  the  proposed 
works.  He  continued  all  day  and  away  into 
the  evening,  when  he  finished;  thus  com- 
pleting within  twenty-four  hours  the  full  lay- 
out of  the  entire  plant  as  it  was  subsequently 
installed.  If  the  plant  were  to  be  rebuilt 
to-day  no  vital  change  would  be  necessary. 

It  will  be  granted  that  this  was  a  remark- 
able engineering  feat,  for  Edison  was  then  a 
new-comer  in  the  cement  business.  .  But  in 
that  one  day's  planning  everything  was  con- 
sidered and  provided  for,  including  crushing, 
mixing,  weighing,  grinding,  drying,  screening, 
sizing,  burning,  packing,  storing,  and  other 
processes. 

From  one  end  to  the  other  the  cement  plant 

is  about  half  a  mile  long,  and  through  the 

various  buildings  there  passes,  automatically, 

each  day  a  vast  quantity  of  material  under 

17  255 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

treatment.  In  practice  this  results  in  the 
production  of  more  than  two  and  a  quarter 
million  pounds  of  finished  cement  every 
twenty-four  hours. 

Not  only  was  all  this  provided  for  in  that 
one  day's  designing,  but  also  smaller  details, 
such,  for  instance,  as  the  carrying  of  all  steam, 
water  and  air  pipes  and  electrical  conductors 
in  a  large  subway  extending  from  one  end  of 
the  plant  to  the  other ;  also  a  system  by  which 
the  ten  thousand  bearings  in  the  plant  are 
oiled  automatically,  requiring  the  services  of 
only  two  men  for  the  entire  work. 

Following  this  general  outline  plan  of  the 
whole  plant  by  Edison  himself  there  came  the 
preparation  of  the  detail  plans  by  his  engineers. 
As  the  manufacture  of  cement  also  involves 
the  breaking  and  grinding  of  rocks,  the  scheme, 
of  course,  included  using  the  giant  rolls  and 
other  crushing,  drying,  and  screening  ma- 
chinery invented  by  him  for  the  iron-con- 
centrating work,  as  mentioned  in  our  last 
chapter. 

No  magnetic  separator  is  necessary  in  ce- 
ment-making, but  there  were  other  processes 
to  provide  for  that  did  not  occur  in  concen- 

256 


PORTLAND    CEMENT 

trating  iron  ore.  One  of  them  relates  to 
burning  the  material,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
important  processes  in  manufacturing  cement. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  well  to  state  for  the  in- 
formation of  the  reader  that  in  cement- 
making,  generally  speaking,  cement-rock  and 
limestone  in  the  rough  are  mixed  together 
and  ground  to  a  fine  powder.  This  powder 
is  "burned"  in  a  kiln  and  comes  out  in  the 
form  of  balls,  called  "clinker."  This  again  is 
crushed  to  a  fine  powder,  which  is  the  cement 
of  commerce. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the  quantity 
of  finished  cement  produced  depends  largely 
upon  the  capacity  of  the  kilns.  When  Edison 
first  thought  of  going  into  cement-making  he 
expected  to  use  the  old  style  of  kilns,  which 
were  about  sixty  feet  long  and  six  feet  in 
diameter,  and  had  a  capacity  of  turning  out 
about  two  hundred  barrels  of  clinker  every 
twenty-four  hours.  He  is  never  satisfied, 
however,  to  take  the  experience  of  others  as 
final,  and  thought  he  could  improve  on  what 
had  been  done  before. 

He  discussed  the  project  with  Mr.  Mallory, 
who  says:  "After  having  gone  over  this 

257 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

matter  several  times,  Mr.  Edison  said,  *  I  be- 
lieve I  can  make  a  kiln  which  will  give  an 
output  of  one  thousand  barrels  in  twenty-four 
hours.*  Although  I  had  then  been  closely 
associated  with  him  for  ten  years  and  was 
accustomed  to  see  him  accomplish  great 
things,  I  could  not  help  feeling  the  improb- 
ability of  his  being  able  to  jump  into  an  old- 
established  industry — as  a  novice — and  start 
by  improving  the  'heart*  of  the  production 
so  as  to  increase  its  capacity  four  hundred 
per  cent.  But  Mr.  Edison  went  to  work 
immediately  and  very  soon  completed  the  de- 
sign of  a  new  type  of  kiln  which  was  to  be  one 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  long  and  nine  feet  in 
diameter,  made  up  in  ten-foot  sections  of  cast 
iron  bolted  together  and  arranged  to  be  re- 
volved on  fifteen  bearings.  He  had  a  wooden 
model  made,  and  studied  it  very  carefully 
through  a  series  of  experiments.  These  re- 
sulted so  satisfactorily  that  this  form  was 
finally  decided  upon,  and  ultimately  installed 
as  part  of  the  plant. 

"  Well,  for  a  year  or  so  the  kiln  problem  was 
a  nightmare  to  me.  We  could  only  obtain 
four  hundred  barrels  at  first,  but  gradually 

258 


PORTLAND    CEMENT 

crept  up  through  a  series  of  heart-breaking 
trials  until  we  got  over  eleven  hundred  barrels 
a  day.  Mr.  Edison  never  lost  his  confidence 
throughout  the  trials,  but  on  receiving  a  dis- 
appointing report  would  order  us  to  try  it 
again." 

Although  the  older  cement  manufacturers 
predicted  utter  failure,  they  have  since  recog- 
nized the  success  of  Edison's  long  kiln,  and  it 
is  now  being  used  quite  generally  in  the  trade. 

Another  invention  of  minor  nature  but 
worthy  of  note  relates  to  the  weighing  of  the 
proportions  of  cement-rock  and  limestone. 
In  most  cases  the  measurement  is  usually  by 
barrow  loads,  but  Edison  determined  that  it 
must  be  done  accurately  to  the  pound,  and 
devised  a  means  of  doing  it  automatically, 
for,  as  he  remarked,  "The  man  at  the  scales 
might  get  to  thinking  of  the  other  fellow's 
best  girl,  so  fifty  or  a  hundred  pounds  of  rock, 
more  or  less,  wouldn't  make  much  difference 
to  him. " 

With  Edison's  device  the  scales  are  set  at 
certain  weights  and  the  materials  are  fed 
from  hoppers.  The  moment  the  scale-beam 
tips  an  electrical  connection  automatically 

259 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

stops  the  feed  and  no  more  can  be  put  on  the 
scale  until  the  load  is  withdrawn. 

Another  and  important  new  feature  in- 
troduced by  Edison  was  in  raising  the  stand- 
ard of  fine  grinding  of  cement  ten  points  above 
the  regular  standard  of  seventy-five  per  cent, 
through  a  two-hundred-mesh  screen.  By  rea- 
son of  the  great  improvements  he  had  made  in 
grinding  machinery  he  could  grind  cement  so 
that  eighty-five  per  cent,  passed  through  a 
two-hundred-mesh  screen.  As  cement  is  valu- 
able in  proportion  to  its  fineness,  it  will  be  seen 
that  he  has  thus  made  an  advance  of  great 
importance  to  the  trade. 

We  cannot  enter  into  all  the  details  of  the 
numerous  inventions  and  improvements  that 
Edison  has  introduced  into  his  cement  plant 
during  the  last  eight  or  nine  years.  It  is  suf- 
ficient to  say  that  by  his  persistent  and 
energetic  labors  during  that  period  he  has 
raised  his  plant  from  the  position  of  a  new- 
comer to  the  rank  of  the  fifth  largest  producer 
of  cement  in  this  country. 

A  remarkable  instance  of  the  power  of 
Edison's  memory  may  be  related  here.  Some 
years  ago,  when  the  cement  plant  was  nearly 

260 


PORTLAND    CEMENT 

finished  and  getting  ready  to  start,  he  went  up 
to  look  it  over  and  see  what  needed  to  be  done. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  train  at  ten-forty  in 
the  morning  he  went  to  the  mill,  and,  starting 
at  one  end,  went  through  the  plant  to  the 
other  end,  examining  every  detail.  He  made 
no  notes  or  memoranda,  but  the  examination 
required  all  day. 

In  the  afternoon,  at  five-thirty,  he  took  a 
train  for  home,  and  on  arriving  there  a  few 
hours  later  got  out  some  note-books  and  began 
to  write  from  memory  the  things  needing 
change  or  attention.  He  continued  on  this 
work  all  night  and  right  along  until  the  next 
afternoon,  when  he  completed  a  list  of  nearly 
six  hundred  items.  This  memory  "stunt" 
was  the  more  remarkable  because  many  of  the 
items  included  all  the  figures  of  new  dimen- 
sions he  had  decided  upon  for  some  of  the 
machinery  in  the  plant. 

Each  item  was  numbered  consecutively, 
and  the  list  copied  and  sent  up  to  the  super- 
intendent, who  was  instructed  to  make  the 
changes  and  report  by  number  as  they  were 
done.  These  changes  were  made  and  their 
value  was  proven  by  later  experience. 

261 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Edison's  achievements  have  made  a  deep 
impression  on  the  cement  industry,  but  it  is 
likely  that  it  will  become  still  deeper  when  his 
"Poured  Cement  House"  is  exploited. 

A  few  years  ago  he  conceived  the  idea  of 
pouring  a  complete  concrete  house  in  a  few 
hours.  He  made  a  long  series  of  experiments 
for  producing  a  free-flowing  combination  of 
the  necessary  materials,  and  at  length  found 
one  that  satisfied  him  that  his  idea  was 
feasible,  although  experts  said  it  could  not  be 
done. 

His  plan  is  to  provide  two  sets  of  iron 
molds,  one  inside  the  other,  with  an  open 
space  between.  These  molds  are  made  in 
small  pieces  and  set  up  by  being  bolted 
together.  When  erected,  the  concrete  mix- 
ture is  poured  in  from  the  top  in  a  continuous 
stream  until  the  space  between  the  molds  is 
filled. 

The  pouring  will  be  done  in  about  six  hours, 
after  which  the  molds  will  be  left  in  position 
about  four  days  in  order  that  the  concrete  may 
harden.  When  the  molds  are  removed  there 
will  remain  standing  an  entire  house,  com- 
plete from  cellar  to  roof,  with  walls,  floors, 

262 


PORTLAND    CEMENT 

stairways,  bath  and  laundry  tubs,  all  in  one 
solid  piece.  These  houses,  when  built  in 
quantity,  will  probably  cost  about  twelve 
hundred  dollars  each. 

Mr.  Edison  intends  this  house  for  the  work- 
ingman,  and  in  its  design  has  insisted  on  its 
being  ornamental  as  well  as  substantial.  As 
he  expressed  it:  "  We  will  give  the  working- 
man  and  his  family  ornamentation  in  their 
house.  They  deserve  it,  and  besides,  it  costs 
no  more  after  the  pattern  is  made  to  give 
decorative  effects  than  it  would  to  make 
everything  plain." 

The  molds  for  the  first  type  of  the  Edison 
poured  house  are  nearly  completed,  and  it  is 
probable  that  in  the  near  future  he  may  be 
able  to  find  sufficient  time  to  carry  this 
project  into  actual  practice. 


XX 

MOTION-PICTURES 

T^HROUGH  his  invention  and  introduction 
*  of  the  phonograph  and  of  his  apparatus 
for  taking  and  exhibiting  motion  -  pictures 
Edison  has  probably  done  more  to  interest 
and  amuse  the  world  than  any  other  living 
man.  These  two  forms  of  amusement  have 
more  audiences  in  a  week  than  all  the  theaters 
in  America  in  a  year. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  while  instantaneous 
photography  is  necessary  to  produce  motion 
pictures,  the  suggestion  of  producing  them  was 
made  many  years  before  the  instantaneous 
photograph  became  possible. 

One  of  the  earliest  efforts  in  this  direction 
was  made  before  Edison  was  born,  and  shown 
by  a  toy  called  the  Zoetrope,  or  "  Wheel  of 
Life."  A  number  of  figures  showing  frac- 
tional parts  of  the  motion  of  an  object — such, 
for  instance,  as  a  boy  skating — were  boldly 

264 


MOTION   PICTURES 

drawn  in  silhouette  on  a  strip  of  paper.  This 
paper  was  put  inside  an  open  cylinder  having 
small  openings  around  its  circumference.  The 
cylinder  was  mounted  on  a  pivot,  and,  when 
revolved,  the  figures  on  the  paper  seemed  to 
be  in  motion  when  viewed  through  the 
openings. 

The  success  of  this  and  similar  toys,  as  well 
as  of  modern  motion-pictures,  depends  upon  a 
phenomenon  known  as  the  "  persistence  of 
vision."  This  means  that  if  an  object  be  pre- 
sented to  the  vision  for  a  moment  and  then 
withdrawn,  the  image  of  that  object  will  re- 
main impressed  on  the  retina  of  the  eye  for  a 
period  of  one-tenth  to  one-seventh  of  a  second. 

If,  for  instance,  a  bright  light  be  moved 
rapidly  up  and  down  in  front  of  the  eye  in  a 
dark  room  it  appears  not  as  a  single  light, 
but  as  a  line  of  fire,  because  there  is  not  time 
for  the  eye  to  lose  the  image  of  the  light  be- 
tween the  rapid  phases  of  its  motion.  For  the 
same  reason,  if  a  number  of  pictures  exactly 
alike  were  rapidly  presented  to  the  eye  in 
succession  it  would  seem  as  if  a  single  picture 
were  being  viewed. 

Thus,  if  a  number  of  photographs,  say  at 
265 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

the  rate  of  fifteen  per  second,  be  taken  of  a 
moving  object,  each  successive  photograph 
will  show  a  fraction  of  the  movements.  Now 
if  these  photographs  be  thrown  on  a  screen 
in  the  same  order  and  at  the  same  rate  at 
which  they  were  taken  the  movements  of  the 
object  would  apparently  again  take  place, 
because  the  eye  does  not  have  time  to  lose  the 
image  of  one  fractional  movement  before  the 
next  follows. 

One  of  the  earliest  suggestions  of  reproduc- 
ing animate  motion  was  made  by  a  Frenchman 
named  Ducos  about  1864.  He  was  followed 
by  others,  but  they  were  all  handicapped  by 
the  fact  that  dry-plates  and  sensitized  film 
were  entirely  unknown,  and  the  wet  plates 
then  used  were  entirely  out  of  the  question 
for  the  development  of  a  practical  commercial 
scheme. 

The  first  serious  attempt  to  secure  photo- 
graphs of  objects  in  motion  was  made  in  1878 
by  Edward  Muybridge.  At  this  time  very 
rapid  wet-plates  were  known.  By  arranging 
a  line  of  cameras  along  a  track  and  causing 
a  horse  in  trotting  past  them  to  strike  wires 
or  strings  attached  to  the  shutters,  the  plates 

266 


MOTION. PICTURES 

were  exposed  and  a  series  of  clear  instantan- 
eous photographs  of  the  horse  in  motion  was 
obtained. 

Positive  prints  were  made  which  were 
mounted  in  a  modified  form  of  Zoetrope  and 
projected  upon  a  screen.  The  horse  in  mo- 
tion was  thus  reproduced,  but,  differing  from 
the  motion  -  pictures  of  to  -  day,  always  re- 
mained in  the  center  of  the  screen  in  violent 
movement  and  making  no  progress. 

Early  in  the  eighties  dry-plates  were  intro-  i 
duced,  and  other  experimenters  took  up  the 
work,  but  they  were  handicapped  by  the  fact 
that  plates  were  heavy  and  only  a  limited 
number  could  be  used.  This  difficulty  may 
be  easily  understood  when  it  is  realized  that  a 
modern  motion  -  picture  play  lasting  fifteen 
minutes  comprises  about  sixteen  thousand 
separate  and  distinct  photographs.  The  im- 
possibility of  manipulating  this  large  number 
of  glass  plates  to  show  one  motion-picture 
play  will  be  seen  at  once. 

This  was  the  condition  of  the  art  when 
Edison  entered  upon  the  work.  He  himself 
says,  "  In  the  year  1887  the  idea  occurred  to 
me  that  it  was  possible  to  devise  an  instrument 

267 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

which  should  do  for  the  eye  what  the  phono- 
graph does  for  the  ear,  and  that  by  a  combina- 
tion of  the  two  all  motion  and  sound  could 
be  recorded  and  reproduced  simultaneously." 

Two  very  serious  difficulties  lay  in  the  way, 
however — first,  a  sensitive  surface  of  such 
form  and  weight  as  could  be  successively 
brought  into  position  and  exposed  at  a  very 
high  rate;  and,  secondly,  the  making  of  a 
camera  capable  of  so  taking  the  pictures. 
Edison  proved  equal  to  the  occasion,  and, 
after  an  immense  amount  of  work  and  experi- 
ment, continuing  over  a  long  period  of  time, 
succeeded  in  producing  apparatus  that  made 
modern  motion-pictures  possible. 

In  his  earliest  experiments  a  cylinder  about 
the  size  of  a  phonograph  record  was  used.  It 
was  coated  with  a  highly  sensitized  surface, 
and  microscopic  photographs,  arranged  spi- 
rally, were  taken  upon  it.  Positive  prints 
were  made  in  the  same  way,  and  viewed 
through  a  magnify  ing-glass.  Various  forms 
of  this  apparatus  were  made,  but  all  were  open 
to  serious  objections,  the  chief  trouble  being 
with  the  photographic  emulsion. 

During  this  experimental  period  the  kodak 
268 


MOTION. PICTURES 

film  was  being  developed  by  the  Eastman 
Company.  Edison  recognized  that  in  this 
product  there  lay  the  solution  of  that  part  of 
the  problem.  At  first  the  film  was  not  just 
what  he  required,  but  the  Eastman  Company 
after  a  time  developed  and  produced  the 
highly  sensitized  surface  that  Edison  sought. 

It  then  remained  to  devise  a  camera  by 
means  of  which  from  twenty  to  forty  pictures 
per  second  could  be  taken.  Every  user  of  a 
film  camera  can  appreciate  the  difficulty  of 
the  problem.  A  long  roll  of  film  must  pass 
steadily  behind  the  lens.  At  every  inch  it 
must  be  stopped,  the  shutter  opened  for  the 
exposure,  and  then  closed  again.  The  film 
must  be  advanced  say  an  inch,  and  these 
operations  repeated  twenty  to  forty  times  a 
second  throughout,  perhaps,  a  thousand  feet 
of  film. 

Who  but  an  Edison  would  assume  that  such 
a  device  could  be  made,  and  with  such  exact- 
ness that  each  picture  should  coincide  with 
the  others?  After  much  experiment,  how- 
ever, he  finally  accomplished  it,  and  in  the 
summer  of  1889  the  first  modern  motion- 
picture  camera  was  made.  From  that  day 

269 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

to  this  the  Edison  camera  has  been  the  ac- 
cepted standard  for  securing  pictures  of 
objects  in  motion. 

The  earliest  form  of  exhibiting  apparatus 
was  known  as  the  kinetoscope.  It  was  a 
machine  in  which  a  positive  print  from  the 
negative  roll  of  film  obtained  in  the  camera 
was  exhibited  directly  to  the  eyes  through  a 
peep-hole.  About  1895  the  pictures  were 
first  shown  through  a  modified  form  of  magic 
lantern,  and  have  so  continued  to  this  day. 
The  industry  has  grown  very  rapidly,  and  at 
the  present  time  (1911)  the  principal  Amer- 
ican manufacturers  of  motion  -  pictures  are 
paying  a  royalty  to  Edison  under  his  basic 
patents. 

The  pictures  made  in  the  earliest  days  of 
the  art  were  simple  and  amusing,  such  as  Fred 
Ott's  sneeze,  Carmencita  dancing,  Italians  and 
their  performing  bears,  fencing,  trapeze  stunts, 
horsemanship,  blacksmithing,  and  so  on.  No 
attempt  was  made  to  portray  a  story  or  play. 
The  "boys"  at  the  laboratory  laugh  when 
they  tell  of  a  local  bruiser  who  agreed  to  box 
a  few  rounds  with  "Jim"  Corbett  in  front  of 
the  camera.  When  this  local  "sparring  part- 

270 


MOTION. PICTURES 

ner  "  came  to  face  Corbett  he  was  so  paralyzed 
with  terror  he  could  hardly  move. 

These  early  pictures  were  made  in  the  yard 
of  Edison's  laboratory  at  Orange,  in  a  studio 
called  the  " Black  Maria."  It  was  made  of 
wood,  painted  black  inside  and  out,  and  could 
be  swung  around  to  face  the  sunlight,  which 
was  admitted  by  a  movable  part  of  the  roof. 

This  is  all  very  different  in  these  modern 
days.  The  studios  in  which  interior  motion- 
pictures  are  made  are  expensive  and  preten- 
tious affairs.  An  immense  building  of  glass, 
with  all  the  properties  and  stage  settings  of  a 
regular  theater,  are  required.  The  Bronx 
Park  (New  York)  studio  of  the  Edison  Com- 
pany cost  at  least  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars. The  company  has  a  second  studio  in 
New  York,  but  not  so  elaborate.  Of  course 
many  of  the  plays  are  produced  out  of  doors, 
in  portions  of  the  country  suited  to  the  story. 

All  the  companies  producing  motion-pic- 
tures employ  regular  stock  companies  of  actors 
and  actresses,  selected  especially  for  their  skill 
in  pantomime,  although,  as  may  be  suspected, 
in  the  actual  taking  of  the  pictures  they  are 
required  to  carry  on  an  animated  dialogue  as 
is  271 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

if  performing  on  the  real  stage.  This  adds 
to  the  smoothness  and  perfection  of  the  per- 
formance. 

Motion-picture  plays  are  produced  under 
the  direction  of  skilled  stage-managers  who 
must  be  specially  trained  for  this  particular 
business.  Their  work  is  far  from  being  easy, 
for  an  act  in  a  picture-play  must  be  exact  and 
free  from  mistakes,  and  must  take  place  in  a 
very  short  time.  For  instance,  an  act  in  such 
a  play  may  take  less  than  five  minutes  to  per- 
form, but  it  must  be  carefully  rehearsed  for 
several  weeks  beforehand. 

There  is  plenty  of  scope  for  patience  and  in- 
genuity in  taking  motion-picture  plays.  If 
trained  children  or  animals  are  required  they 
must  be  found  or  trained;  and  all  the  re- 
sources of  trick  and  stop  photography  are 
called  upon  from  time  to  time  as  the  occasion 
requires. 

Edison  has  always  held  to  his  idea  of  a  com- 
bination of  the  phonograph  and  motion-pic- 
ture. Some  time  ago  he  said,  "  I  believe  that 
in  coming  years,  by  my  own  work  and  that  of 
Dickson,  Muybridge,  Marey,  and  others  who 
will  doubtless  enter  the  field,  grand  opera  can 

272 


MOTION. PICTURES 

be  given  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  in 
New  York  without  any  material  change  from 
the  original,  and  with  artists  and  musicians 
long  since  dead." 

This  prediction  has  been  partly  fulfilled,  for 
Edison  has  already  shown  successful  talking 
motion-pictures,  and  at  this  writing  the  finish- 
ing work  is  being  done  on  the  apparatus  for 
regularly  placing  them  before  the  public. 


XXI 

EDISON    INVENTS    A    NEW    STORAGE     BATTERY 

JV  A  ANY  an  invention  has  been  made  as  the 
*  *  *  result  of  some  happy  thought  or  in- 
spiration, but  most  inventions  are  made  by 
men  working  along  certain  lines,  who  set  out 
to  accomplish  a  desired  result.  It  is  rarely, 
however,  that  a  man  starts  out  deliberately, 
as  Edison  did,  to  invent  an  entirely  new  type 
of  such  an  intricate  device  as  a  storage  bat- 
tery, with  only  a  vague  starting  point. 

Previous  to  Edison's  work  the  only  type  of 
storage  battery  known  was  the  one  in  which 
lead  plates  and  sulphuric  acid  were  employed. 
He  had  always  realized  the  value  of  a  storage 
battery  as  such,  but  never  believed  that  the 
lead-acid  type  could  fulfil  all  expectations 
because  of  its  weight  and  incurable  defects. 

About  the  time  that  he  closed  the  magnetic 
iron  ore  concentrating  plant  (in  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century)  Edison  remarked  to 

274 


Tl     ... 


A    NEW    STOivAGE    BATTERY 

Mr.  R.  H.  Beach,  then  of  the  General  Electric 
Company:  "Beach,  I  don't  think  nature 
would  be  so  unkind  as  to  withhold  the  secret 
of  a  good  storage  battery  if  a  real  earnest  hunt 
for  it  is  made.  I'm  going  to  hunt."  And 
before  starting  he  determined  to  avoid  lead 
and  sulphuric  acid. 

Edison  is  frequently  asked  what  he  con- 
siders to  be  the  secret  of  achievement.  He 
always  replies,  "Hard  work,  based  on  hard 
thinking."  He  has  consistently  lived  up  to 
this  prescription  to  the  utmost. 

Of  all  his  inventions  it  is  doubtful  whether 
any  one  of  them  has  called  forth  more  original 
thought,  work,  perseverance,  ingenuity,  and 
monumental  patience  than  the  one  we  are 
now  dealing  with.  One  of  his  associates  who 
has  been  through  the  many  years  of  the 
storage  -  battery  drudgery  with  him  said: 
"  If  Edison's  experiments,  investigations,  and 
work  on  this  storage  battery  were  all  that  he 
had  ever  done,  I  should  say  that  he  was  not 
only  a  notable  inventor,  but  also  a  great  man. 
It  is  almost  impossible  to  appreciate  the 
er  iiious  difficulties  that  have  been  over- 


come." 


275 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

From  a  beginning  which  was  made  prac- 
tically in  the  dark,  it  was  not  until  he  had  com- 
pleted more  than  ten  thousand  experiments 
that  he  obtained  any  positive  results  what- 
ever. Month  after  month  of  constant  work 
by  day  and  night  had  not  broken  down  Edi- 
son's faith  in  success,  and  the  failure  of  an 
experiment  simply  meant  that  he  had  found 
something  else  that  would  not  do,  thus  bring- 
ing him  nearer  the  possible  goal. 

After  this  immense  amount  of  preliminary 
work  he  had  obtained  promising  results  in  a 
series  of  reactions  between  nickel  and  iron,  and 
was  then  all  afire  to  push  ahead.  He  there- 
fore established  a  chemical  plant  at  Silver 
Lake,  New  Jersey,  and,  gathering  around  him 
a  corps  of  mechanics,  chemists,  machinists, 
and  experimenters,  settled  down  to  one  of  his 
characteristic  struggles  for  supremacy.  To 
some  extent  it  was  a  revival  of  the  old  Menlo 
Park  days  and  nights. 

The  group  that  took  part  in  these  early 
years  of  Edison's  arduous  labors  included  his 
old-time  assistant,  Fred  Ott,  together  with 
his  chemist,  J.  W.  Aylsworth,  as  well  as  E.  J. 
Ross,  Jr. ;  W.  E.  Holland,  and  Ralph  Arbogast, 

276 


A    NEW    STORAGE    BATTERY 

and  a  little  later  W.  G.  Bee,  all  of  whom  have 
grown  up  with  the  battery  and  still  devote 
their  energies  to  its  commercial  development. 

One  of  these  workers,  relating  the  strenuous 
experiences  of  these  few  years,  says:  "  It  was 
hard  work  and  long  hours,  but  still  there  were 
some  things  that  made  life  pleasant.  One  of 
them  was  the  supper-hour  we  enjoyed  when  we 
worked  nights.  Mr.  Edison  would  have  sup- 
per sent  in  about  midnight,  and  we  all  sat 
down  together,  including  himself.  Work  was 
forgotten  for  the  time,  and  all  hands  were 
ready  for  fun.  I  have  very  pleasant  recol- 
lections of  Mr.  Edison  at  these  times.  He 
would  always  relax  and  help  to  make  a  good 
time,  and  on  some  occasions  I  have  seen  him 
fairly  overflow  with  animal  spirits,  just  like  a 
boy  let  out  of  school.  He  was  very  fond  of 
telling  and  hearing  stories,  and  always  ap- 
preciated a  joke.  After  the  supper-hour  was 
over,  however,  he  again  became  the  serious, 
energetic  inventor,  deeply  immersed  in  the 
work  in  hand." 

Another  interesting  and  amusing  reminis^ 
cence  of  this  period  of  activity  has  been  told  by 
another  of  the  family  of  experimenters: 

277 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

"  Sometimes  when  Mr.  Edison  had  been  work- 
ing long  hours  he  would  want  to  have  a 
short  sleep.  It  was  one  of  the  funniest  things 
I  ever  witnessed  to  see  him  crawl  into  an  or- 
dinary roll-top  desk  and  curl  up  and  take  a 
nap.  If  there  was  a  sight  that  was  still  more 
funny,  it  was  to  see  him  turn  over  on  his  other 
side,  all  the  time  remaining  in  the  desk.  He 
would  use  several  volumes  of  Watts'  Dictionary 
of  Chemistry  for  a  pillow,  and  we  fellows  used 
to  say  that  he  absorbed  the  contents  during 
his  sleep,  judging  from  the  flow  of  new  ideas 
he  had  on  waking." 

Such  incidents  as  these  serve  merely  to 
illustrate  the  lighter  moments  that  relieved 
the  severe  and  arduous  labors  of  the  strenuous 
five  years  of  the  early  storage-battery  work 
of  Edison  and  his  associates.  Difficulties 
there  were  a-plenty,  but  these  are  what 
Edison  usually  thrives  on.  As  another  co- 
worker  of  this  period  says:  " Edison  seemed 
pleased  when  he  used  to  run  up  against  a 
serious  difficulty.  It  would  seem  to  stiffen 
his  backbone  and  make  him  more  prolific  of 
new  ideas.  For  a  time  I  thought  I  was  foolish 
to  imagine  such  a  thing,  but  I  could  never  get 

278 


A    NEW    STORAGE    BATTERY 

away  from  the  impression  that  he  really  ap- 
peared happy  when  he  ran  up  against  a 
serious  snag." 

It  would  be  out  of  the  question  in  a  book 
of  this  kind  to  follow  Edison's  trail  in  detail 
through  the  innumerable  twists  and  turns  of 
his  experimentation  on  the  storage  battery, 
for  they  would  fill  a  big  volume.  The  reader 
may  imagine  how  extensive  they  were  from 
the  reply  of  one  of  his  laboratory  assistants, 
who,  when  asked  how  many  experiments  were 
made  on  the  storage  battery  since  the  year 
1900,  replied:  " Goodness  only  knows!  We 
used  to  number  our  experiments  consecutively 
from  one  to  ten  thousand,  and  when  we  got 
up  to  ten  thousand  we  turned  back  to  one  and 
ran  up  to  ten  thousand  again,  and  so  on.  We 
ran  through  several  series — I  don't  know  how 
many,  and  have  lost  track  of  them  now,  but 
it  was  not  far  from  fifty  thousand." 

The  mechanical  problems  in  devising  this 
battery  were  numerous  and  intricate,  but  the 
greatest  difficulty  that  Edison  had  to  over- 
come was  the  proper  preparation  of  nickel 
hydrate  for  the  positive  and  iron  oxide  for  the 
negative  plate.  He  found  that  comparatively 

279 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

little  was  known  by  manufacturing  chemists 
about  these  compounds.  Hence  it  became 
necessary  for  him  to  establish  his  own  chem- 
ical works  and  put  them  in  charge  of  men 
specially  trained  by  himself. 

After  an  intense  struggle  with  these  prob- 
lems, lasting  over  several  years,  the  storage 
battery  was  at  length  completed  and  put  on 
the  market.  The  public  was  ready  for  it  and 
there  was  a  rapid  sale. 

Continuous  tests  of  the  battery  were  carried 
on  at  the  laboratory,  as  well  as  practical  and 
heavy  tests  in  automobiles,  which  were  kept 
running  constantly  over  all  kinds  of  roads 
under  Edison's  directions.  After  these  tests 
had  been  going  on  for  some  time  the  results 
showed  that  occasionally  a  cell  here  and 
there  would  fall  short  in  capacity. 

This  did  not  suit  Edison.  He  was  deter- 
mined to  make  his  storage  battery  a  complete 
success,  and  after  careful  thought  decided  to 
shut  down  until  he  had  overcome  the  trouble. 
The  customers  were  satisfied  and  wanted  to 
buy  more  batteries,  but  he  was  not  satisfied 
and  would  sell  no  more  until  he  had  made  the 
battery  perfect. 

280 


A    NEW    STORAGE    BATTERY 

He  therefore  shut  down  the  factory  and 
went  to  experimenting  once  more.  The  old 
strenuous  struggle  set  in  and  continued  nearly 
three  years  before  he  was  satisfied  beyond 
doubt  that  the  battery  was  right.  In  the 
early  summer  of  1909  Edison  once  more 
started  to  manufacture  and  sell  the  batteries, 
and  has  since  that  time  continued  to  sup- 
ply them  as  quickly  as  they  are  made.  At  the 
present  writing  the  factory  is  running  day 
and  night  in  attempting  to  keep  up  with 
orders. 

One  of  the  principal  troubles  of  the  earlier 
cells  was  a  lack  of  conductivity  between  the 
nickel  hydrate  and  the  metal  tube  in  which  it 
was  contained.  Edison  had  used  graphite 
to  obtain  this  conductivity,  but  this  material 
proved  to  be  uncertain  in  some  cases.  After 
a  long  course  of  study  and  experiment  he 
solved  this  problem  in  a  satisfactory  manner 
by  using  flakes  of  pure  nickel,  which  he  ob- 
tained by  a  most  fascinating  and  ingenious 
process. 

A  metallic  cylinder  is  electroplated  with 
alternate  layers  of  copper  and  nickel,  one 
hundred  of  each.  The  combined  sheet,  which 

281 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

is  only  as  thick  as  a  visiting-card,  is  stripped 
off  the  cylinder  and  cut  into  tiny  squares  of 
about  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  each.  These 
squares  are  put  into  a  bath  which  dissolves 
out  the  copper.  This  releases  the  layers  of 
nickel,  so  that  each  of  these  squares  becomes 
one  hundred  tiny  sheets,  or  flakes,  of  pure 
metallic  nickel,  so  thin  and  light  that  when 
they  are  dried  they  will  float  in  the  air. 
These  flakes  are  automatically  pressed  into 
the  positive  tubes  with  the  nickel  hydrate  in 
an  ingenious  machine  which  had  to  be  specially 
invented  for  the  purpose. 

Not  only  was  this  machine  specially  in- 
vented, but  it  was  necessary  to  invent  and 
design  practically  all  the  other  machinery  that 
it  was  necessary  to  use  in  manufacturing  the 
battery.  Thus,  we  see  that  in  this,  as  in 
many  other  of  Edison's  inventions,  it  is  not 
only  the  thing  itself  that  has  been  invented, 
but  also  the  special  machinery  and  tools  to 
make  it. 

The  principal  use  that  Edison  has  had  in 
mind  for  his  storage  battery  is  the  transporta- 
tion of  freight  and  passengers  by  truck,  auto- 
mobile, and  street -car.  Although  at  the 

282 


A    NEW    STORAGE    BATTERY 

time  of  writing  this  book  the  improved  bat- 
tery has  been  on  the  market  a  little  over  two 
years,  great  strides  have  been  made  in  carrying 
his  ideas  into  effect. 

The  number  of  trucks  and  automobiles  using 
Edison's  storage  battery  already  run  into  the 
thousands,  with  more  orders  than  can  be  im- 
mediately filled.  The  growth  of  the  street- 
car business  has  not  been  so  rapid,  but  the 
success  of  the  cars  so  far  put  into  use  has  been 
so  great  that  their  numbers  promise  to  in- 
crease rapidly. 


XXII 

EDISON'S    MISCELLANEOUS    INVENTIONS 

HTHUS  far  the  history  of  Edison's  career 
*  has  fallen  naturally  into  a  series  of 
chapters  each  aiming  to  describe  a  group  of 
inventions  in  the  development  of  some  art. 
This  plan  has  been  helpful  to  the  writer  and 
probably  useful  to  the  reader. 

It  happens,  however,  that  the  process  has 
left  a  vast  mass  of  discovery  and  invention 
untouched,  and  it  is  now  proposed  to  make 
brief  mention  of  a  few  of  the  hundreds  of 
things  that  have  occupied  Edison's  attention 
from  time  to  time. 

Beginning  with  telegraphy,  we  find  that 
Edison  did  some  work  on  wireless  transmis- 
sion. He  says:  "I  perfected  a  system  of 
train  telegraphy  between  stations  and  trains 
in  motion,  whereby  messages  could  be  sent 
from  the  moving  train  to  the  central  office; 

284 


MISCELLANEOUS    INVENTIONS 

and  this  was  the  forerunner  of  wireless 
telegraphy.  This  system  was  used  for  a 
number  of  years  on  the  Lehigh  Valley  Rail- 
road on  their  construction  trains.  The  elec- 
tric wave  passed  from  a  piece  of  metal  on  top 
of  the  car  across  the  air  to  the  telegraph  wires, 
and  then  proceeded  to  the  despatcher's 
office.  In  my  first  experiments  with  this 
system  I  tried  it  on  the  Staten  Island  Rail- 
road and  employed  an  operator  named  King 
to  do  the  experimenting.  He  reported  results 
every  day,  and  received  instructions  by  mail; 
but  for  some  reason  he  could  send  messages 
all  right  when  the  train  went  in  one  direction, 
but  could  not  make  it  go  in  the  contrary  di- 
rection. I  made  suggestions  of  every  kind  to 
get  around  this  phenomenon.  Finally  I  tele- 
graphed King  to  find  out  if  he  had  any  sugges- 
tions himself,  and  I  received  a  reply  that  the 
only  way  he  could  propose  to  get  around  the 
difficulty  was  to  put  the  island  on  a  pivot  so  it 
could  be  turned  around.  I  found  the  trouble 
finally,  and  the  practical  introduction  on  the 
Lehigh  Valley  road  was  the  result.  The  sys- 
tem was  sold  to  a  very  wealthy  man,  and  he 
would  never  sell  any  rights  or  answer  letters. 

285 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

He  became  a  spiritualist  subsequently,  which 
probably  explains  it." 

The  earlier  experiments  with  wireless  teleg- 
raphy were  made  at  Menlo  Park  during  the 
first  days  of  the  electric  light,  and  it  was  not 
until  1886  that  Edison  had  time  to  spare  to 
put  the  system  into  actual  use.  At  that  time 
Ezra  T.  Gilliland  and  Lucius  J.  Phelps,  who 
had  experimented  on  the  same  lines,  became 
associated  with  him  in  the  work. 

Although  the  space  between  the  train  and 
the  pole  line  was  not  more  than  fifty  feet, 
Edison  had  succeeded  at  Menlo  Park  in  trans- 
mitting messages  through  the  air  at  a  distance 
of  five  hundred  and  eighty  feet.  Speaking  of 
this  and  of  his  other  experiments  with  induc- 
tion telegraphy  by  means  of  kites,  he  said, 
recently:  "We  only  transmitted  about  two 
and  one-half  miles  through  the  kites.  What 
has  always  puzzled  me  since  is  that  I  did  not 
think  of  using  the  results  of  my  experiments 
on  'etheric  force*  that  I  made  in  1875.  I 
have  never  been  able  to  understand  how  I 
came  to  overlook  them.  If  I  had  made  use 
of  my  own  work  I  should  have  had  long- 
distance wireless  telegraphy." 

286 


MISCELLANEOUS    INVENTIONS 

These  experiments  of  1875,  as  recorded  in 
Edison's  famous  note-books,  show  that  in  that 
year  he  detected  and  studied  some  then  un- 
known and  curious  phenomena  which  made 
him  think  he  was  on  the  trail  of  a  new  force. 
His  representative,  Mr.  Batchelor,  showed 
these  experiments  with  Edison's  apparatus, 
including  the  "dark  box,"  at  the  Paris  Expo- 
sition in  1 88 1.  Without  knowing  it,  for  he 
was  far  in  advance  of  the  time,  Edison  had 
really  entered  upon  the  path  of  long-distance 
wireless  telegraphy,  as  was  proven  later  when 
the  magnificent  work  of  Hertz  was  published. 

When  Roentgen  made  the  discovery  of  the 
X-ray  in  1895  Edison  took  up  experimenta- 
tion with  it  on  a  large  scale.  He  made  the 
first  fluoroscope,  using  tungstate  of  calcium 
for  the  screen.  In  order  to  find  other  fluores- 
cent substances  he  set  four  men  to  work  and 
thus  collected  upward  of  eight  thousand  dif- 
ferent crystals  of  various  chemical  combina- 
tions, of  which  about  eighteen  hundred  would 
fluoresce  to  the  X-ray.  He  also  invented  a 
new  lamp  for  giving  light  by  means  of  these 
fluorescent  crystals  fused  to  the  inside  of  the 
glass.  Some  of  these  lamps  were  made  and 
19  287 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

used  for  a  time,  but  he  gave  up  the  idea  when 
the  dangerous  nature  of  the  X-ray  became 
known. 

It  would  be  possible  to  go  on  and  describe 
in  brief  detail  many  more  of  the  hundreds 
of  Edison's  miscellaneous  inventions,  but  the 
limits  of  our  space  will  not  permit  more  than 
the  mere  mention  of  a  few,  simply  to  illustrate 
the  wide  range  of  his  ideas  and  work.  For 
instance : 

A  dry  process  of  separating  placer  gold; 
the  rapid  disposal  of  heavy  snows  in  cities. 

Experiments  on  flying  machines  xwith  an 
engine  operated  by  explosions  of  guncotton. 

The  joint  invention,  with  M.  W.  Scott  Sims, 
of  a  dirigible  submarine  torpedo  operated  by 
electricity. 

Pyromagnetic  generators  for  generating 
electricity  directly  from  the  combustion  of 
coal. 

Pyromagnetic  motors  operated  by  alternate 
heating  and  cooling. 

A  magnetic  bridge  for  testing  the  magnetic 
qualities  of  iron. 

A  "dead-beat"  galvanometer  without  coils 
or  magnetic  needle. 

288 


MISCELLANEOUS    INVENTIONS 

The  odoroscope,  for  measuring  odors;  pre- 
serving fruit  in  vacua;  making  plate  glass; 
drawing  wire. 

Metallurgical  processes  for  treatment  of 
nickel,  gold,  and  copper  ores. 

From  first  to  last  Edison  has  filed  in  the 
United  States  Patent  Office  more  than  fourteen 
hundred  applications  for  patents.  Besides,  he 
filed  some  one  hundred  and  twenty  caveats, 
embracing  not  less  than  fifteen  hundred  addi- 
tional inventions.  The  caveat  has  now  been 
abolished  in  patent-office  practice,  but  such 
a  document  could  formerly  be  filed  by  an  in- 
ventor to  obtain  a  partial  protection  for  a 
year  while  completing  his  invention.  As  an 
example  of  Edison's  fertility  and  the  endless 
variety  of  subjects  engaging  his  attention  the 
following  list  of  matters  covered  by  one  of  his 
caveats  is  given.  All  his  caveats  are  not 
quite  so  full  of  " plums,"  but  this  is  certainly 
a  wonder: 

Forty-one  distinct  inventions  relating  to  the 
phonograph,  covering  various  forms  of  re- 
corders, arrangement  of  parts,  making  of 
records,  shaving  tool,  adjustments,  etc. 

Eight  forms  of  electric  lamps  using  in- 
289 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

fusible  earthy  oxides  and  brought  to  high  in- 
candescence in  vacuo  by  high  potential  cur- 
rent of  several  thousand  volts;  same  charac- 
ter as  impingement  of  X-rays  on  object  in 
bulb. 

A  loud-speaking  telephone  with  quartz 
cylinder  and  beam  of  ultra-violet  light. 

Four  forms  of  arc-light  with  special  carbons. 

A  thermostatic  motor. 

A  device  for  sealing  together  the  inside  part 
and  bulb  of  an  incandescent  lamp  mechan- 
ically. 

Regulators  for  dynamos  and  motors. 

Three  devices  for  utilizing  vibrations  beyond 
the  ultra-violet. 

A  great  variety  of  methods  for  coating  in- 
candescent lamp  filaments  with  silicon,  ti- 
tanium, chromium,  osmium,  boron,  etc. 

Several  methods  of  making  porous  fila- 
ments. 

Several  methods  of  making  squirted  fila- 
ments of  a  variety  of  materials,  of  which  about 
thirty  are  specified. 

Seventeen  different  methods  and  devices 
for  separating  magnetic  ores. 

A  continuously  operative  primary  battery. 
290 


MISCELLANEOUS    INVENTIONS 

A  musical  instrument  operating  one  of 
Helmholtz's  artificial  larynxes. 

A  siren  worked  by  explosion  of  small 
quantities  of  oxygen  and  hydrogen  mixed. 

Three  other  sirens  made  to  give  vocal 
sounds  or  articulate  speech. 

A  device  for  projecting  sound-waves  to  a 
distance  without  spreading,  and  in  a  straight 
line,  on  the  principle  of  smoke-rings. 

A  device  for  continuously  indicating  on  a 
galvanometer  the  depths  of  the  ocean. 

A  method  of  preventing  in  a  great  measure 
friction  of  water  against  the  hull  of  a  ship  and 
incidentally  preventing  fouling  by  barnacles. 

A  telephone  receiver  whereby  the  vibrations 
of  the  diaphragm  are  considerably  amplified. 

Two  methods  of  "space'*  telegraphy  at  sea. 

An  improved  and  extended  string  telephone. 

Devices  and  method  of  talking  through 
water  for  a  considerable  distance. 

An  audiphone  for  deaf  people. 

Sound-bridge  for  measuring  resistance  of 
tubes  and  other  materials  for  conveying  sound. 

A  method  of  testing  a  magnet  to  ascertain 
the  existence  of  flaws  in  the  iron  or  steel  com- 
posing the  same. 

291 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Method  of  distilling  liquids  by  incandescent 
conductor  immersed  in  the  liquid. 

Method  of  obtaining  electricity  direct  from 
coal. 

An  engine  operated  by  steam  produced  by 
the  hydration  and  dehydration  of  metallic 
salts. 

Device  and  method  of  telegraphing  photo- 
graphically. 

Carbon  crucible  kept  brilliantly  incandes- 
cent by  current  in  vacua  for  obtaining  reaction 
with  refractory  metals. 

Device  for  examining  combinations  of  odors 
and  their  changes  by  rotation  at  different 
speeds. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  above 
and  hundreds  of  others  are  not  merely  ideas 
put  in  writing,  but  represent  actual  inventions 
upon  which  Edison  worked  and  experimented. 
In  many  cases  the  experiments  ran  into  the 
thousands,  requiring  months  for  their  per- 
formance. 

To  describe  Edison's  mere  ideas  and  sug- 
gestions for  future  work  would  of  itself  fill  a 
volume.  These  are  written  in  his  own  hand- 
writing in  a  number  of  large  record -books 

292 


MISCELLANEOUS    INVENTIONS 

which  he  has  shown  to  the  writer.  Judging 
from  a  hasty  inspection,  there  is  enough  ma- 
terial in  these  books  to  occupy  the  lifetime  of 
several  persons. 

The  immense  range  of  Edison's  mind  and 
activities  cannot  well  be  described  in  cold 
print,  but  can  only  be  adequately  compre- 
hended by  those  who  have  been  closely  asso- 
ciated with  him  for  a  length  of  time,  and  who 
have  had  opportunity  of  studying  his  volumi- 
nous records. 


XXIII 

EDISON'S    METHOD   IN   INVENTING 

TF  one  were  allowed  only  two  words  with 
*  which  to  describe  Edison  it  is  doubtful 
whether  a  close  examination  of  the  entire  dic- 
tionary would  disclose  any  others  more  suit- 
able than  "experimenter- inventor."  These 
would  express  the  overruling  characteristics 
of  his  eventful  career. 

His  life  as  child,  boy,  and  man  has  revealed 
the  born  investigator  with  original  reasoning 
powers,  unlimited  imagination,  and  daring 
method.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that 
a  man  of  this  kind  should  exhibit  a  ceaseless, 
absorbing  desire  for  knowledge,  willing  to 
spend  his  last  cent  in  experimentation  to 
satisfy  the  cravings  of  an  inquiring  mind. 

There  is  nothing  of  the  slap-dash  style  in 
Edison's  experiments.  While  he  "  tries  every- 
thing,"  it  is  not  merely  the  mixing  of  a  little 
of  this,  some  of  that,  and  a  few  drops  of  the 

294 


METHOD    IN    INVENTING 

other,  in  the  hope  that  something  will  come  of 
it.  On  the  contrary,  his  instructions  are 
always  clear-cut  and  direct,  and  must  be  fol- 
lowed out  systematically,  exactly,  and  mi- 
nutely, no  matter  where  they  lead  nor  how 
long  the  experiment  may  take. 

Unthinking  persons  have  had  a  notion  that 
some  of  Edison's  successes  have  been  due  to 
mere  dumb  fool  luck — to  fortunate  "  happen- 
ings." Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the 
truth,  for,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  owing  almost 
entirely  to  his  comprehensive  knowledge,  the 
breadth  of  his  conception,  the  daring  origi- 
nality of  his  methods,  and  minuteness  and 
extent  of  experiment,  combined  with  patient, 
unceasing  perseverance,  that  new  arts  have 
been  created  and  additions  made. to  others 
already  in  existence. 

One  of  the  first  things  Edison  does  in  be- 
ginning a  new  line  of  investigation  is  to  master 
the  literature  of  the  subject.  He  wants  to 
know  what  has  been  done  before.  Not  that 
he  considers  this  as  final,  for  he  often  obtains 
vastly  different  results  by  repeating  in  his 
own  way  the  experiments  of  others. 

"  Edison  can  travel  along  a  well-used  road 
295 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

and  still  find  virgin  soil,"  remarked  one  of  his 
experimenters  recently,  who  had  been  trying 
to  make  a  certain  compound,  but  with  poor 
success.  Edison  tried  it  in  the  same  way,  but 
made  a  change  in  one  of  the  operations  and 
succeeded. 

Another  of  the  experimental  staff  says: 
"Edison  is  never  hindered  by  theory,  but 
resorts  to  actual  experiment  for  proof.  For 
instance,  when  he  conceived  the  idea  of  pour- 
ing a  complete  concrete  house  it  was  univer- 
sally held  that  it  would  be  impossible  because 
the  pieces  of  stone  in  the  mixture  would  not 
rise  to  the  level  of  the  pouring-point,  but 
would  gravitate  to  a  lower  plane  in  the  soft 
cement.  This,  however,  did  not  hinder  him 
from  making  a  series  of  experiments  which  re- 
sulted in  an  invention  that  proved  conclusively 
the  contrary." 

Having  conceived  some  new  idea  and  read 
everything  obtainable  relating  to  the  subject 
in  general,  Edison's  fertility  of  resource  and 
originality  come  into  play.  He  will  write  in 
one  of  the  laboratory  note-books  a  memoran- 
dum of  the  experiments  to  be  tried,  and,  if 
necessary,  will  illustrate  by  sketches. 

296 


METHOD    IN    INVENTING 

This  book  is  then  given  to  one  of  the  large 
staff  of  experimenters.  Here  strenuousness 
and  a  prompt  carrying  on  of  the  work  are 
required.  The  results  of  each  experiment 
must  be  recorded  in  the  note-book,  and  daily 
or  more  frequent  reports  are  expected.  Edi- 
son does  not  forget  what  is  going  on,  but  in 
his  daily  tours  through  the  laboratory  keeps 
in  touch  with  the  work  of  all  the  experiment- 
ers. His  memory  is  so  keen  and  retentive 
that  he  is  as  fully  aware  of  the  progress  and 
details  of  each  of  the  numerous  experiments 
constantly  going  on  as  if  he  had  made  them 
all  himself. 

The  use  of  laboratory  note-books  was  begun 
early  in  the  Menlo  Park  days  and  has  con- 
tinued ever  since.  They  are  plain  blank- 
books,  each  about  eight  and  a  half  by  six 
inches,  containing  about  two  hundred  pages. 
At  the  present  time  there  are  more  than  one 
thousand  of  these  books  in  the  series.  On 
their  pages  are  noted  Edison's  ideas,  sketches, 
and  memoranda,  together  with  records  of 
countless  thousands  of  experiments  made  by 
him  or  under  his  direction  during  more  than 
thirty  years. 

297 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

These  two  hundred  thousand  or  more  pages 
cover  investigations  into  every  department 
of  science,  showing  the  operations  of  a  master 
mind  seeking  to  surprise  Nature  into  a  be- 
trayal of  her  secrets  by  asking  her  the  same 
question  in  a  hundred  different  ways.  The 
breadth  of  thought,  thoroughness  of  method, 
infinite  detail,  and  minuteness  of  investiga- 
tion proceeding  from  the  workings  of  one 
mind  would  surpass  belief  were  they  not 
shown  by  this  wonderful  collection  of  note- 
books. 

A  remark  made  by  one  of  the  staff,  who  has 
been  experimenting  at  the  laboratory  for  over 
twenty  years,  is  suggestive.  He  said :  ' '  Edi- 
son can  think  of  more  ways  of  doing  a  thing 
than  any  man  I  ever  saw  or  heard  of.  He 
tries  everything  and  never  lets  up,  even 
though  failure  is  apparently  staring  him  in 
the  face.  He  only  stops  when  he  simply  can't 
go  any  farther  on  that  particular  line.  When 
he  decides  on  any  mode  of  procedure  he  gives 
his  notes  to  the  experimenter  and  lets  him 
alone,  only  stopping  in  from  time  to  time  to 
look  at  the  operations  and  receive  reports  of 
progress." 

298 


METHOD    IN    INVENTING 

The  idea  of  attributing  great  successes  to 
"genius"  has  always  been  repudiated  by 
Edison,  as  evidenced  by  his  historic  remark 
that  "genius  is  one  per  cent,  inspiration  and 
ninety-nine  per  cent,  perspiration."  Again, 
in  a  conversation  many  years  ago  between 
Edison,  Batchelor,  and  E.  H.  Johnson,  the 
latter  made  allusion  to  Edison's  genius,  when 
Edison  replied: 

"Stuff!  I  tell  you  genius  is  hard  work, 
stick-to-it-iveness,  and  common  sense." 

"Yes,"  said  Johnson,  "I  admit  there  is  all 
that  to  it,  but  there's  still  more.  Batch  and 
I  have  those  qualifications,  but,  although  we 
knew  quite  a  lot  about  telephones,  and  worked 
hard,  we  couldn't  invent  a  brand-new  non- 
infringing  telephone  receiver  as  you  (Jid  when 
Gouraud  cabled  for  one.  Then,  how  about 
the  subdivision  of  the  electric  light  ?" 

"Electric  current,"  corrected  Edison. 

"  True, ' '  continued  Johnson ;  "  you  were  the 
one  to  make  that  very  distinction.  The 
scientific  world  had  been  working  hard  on  sub- 
division for  years,  using  what  appeared  to  be 
common  sense.  Results,  worse  than  nil. 
Then  you  come  along,  and  about  the  first 

299 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

thing  you  do,  after  looking  the  ground  over, 
is  to  start  off  in  the  opposite  direction,  which 
subsequently  proves  to  be  the  only  possible 
way  to  reach  the  goal.  It  seems  to  me  that 
this  is  pretty  close  to  the  dictionary  definition 
of  genius. " 

It  is  said  that  Edison  replied  rather  in- 
coherently and  changed  the  topic  of  conversa- 
tion. 

This  innate  modesty,  however,  does  not  pre- 
vent Edison  from  recognizing  and  classifying 
his  own  methods  of  investigation.  In  a  con- 
versation with  two  old  associates  recently 
(April,  1909)  he  remarked:  "  It  has  been  said 
of  me  that  my  methods  are  empirical.  That 
is  true  only  so  far  as  chemistry  is  concerned. 
Did  you  ever  realize  that  practically  all  in- 
dustrial chemistry  is  colloidal  in  its  nature? 
Hard  rubber,  celluloid,  glass,  soap,  paper,  and 
lots  of  others,  all  have  to  deal  with  amorphous 
substances,  as  to  which  comparatively  little 
has  been  really  settled.  My  methods  are 
similar  to  those  followed  by  Luther  Burbank. 
He  plants  an  acre,  and  when  this  is  in  bloom 
he  inspects  it.  He  has  a  sharp  eye,  and  can 
pick  out  of  thousands  a  single  plant  that  has 

300 


METHOD    IN    INVENTING 

promise  of  what  he  wants.  From  this  he  gets 
the  seed,  and  uses  his  skill  and  knowledge  in 
producing  from  it  a  number  of  new  plants 
which,  on  development,  furnish  the  means  of 
propagating  an  improved  variety  in  large 
quantity.  So,  when  I  am  after  a  chemical 
result  that  I  have  in  mind  I  may  make  hun- 
dreds or  thousands  of  experiments  out  of 
which  there  may  be  one  that  promises  results 
in  the  right  direction.  This  I  follow  up  to 
its  legitimate  conclusion,  discarding  the  others, 
and  usually  get  what  I  am  after.  There  is  no 
doubt  about  this  being  empirical;  but  when 
it  comes  to  problems  of  a  mechanical  nature, 
I  want  to  tell  you  that  all  I've  ever  tackled  and 
solved  have  been  done  by  hard,  logical  th ink- 
ing. "  The  intense  earnestness  and  emphasis 
with  which  this  was  said  were  very  impressive 
to  the  auditors. 

If,  in  following  out  his  ideas,  an  experiment 
does  not  show  the  results  that  Edison  wants, 
it  is  not  regarded  as  a  failure,  but  as  some- 
thing learned.  This  attitude  is  illustrated  by 
his  reply  to  Mr.  Mallory,  who  expressed  regret 
that  the  first  nine  thousand  and  odd  experi- 
ments on  the  storage  battery  had  been  with- 

301 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

out  results.  Edison  replied,  with  a  smile: 
"  Results!  Why,  man,  I  have  gotten  a  lot  of 
results !  I  have  found  several  thousand  things 
that  won't  work." 

Edison's  patient,  plodding  methods  do  not 
always  appear  on  the  note-books.  For  in- 
stance, a  suggestion  in  one  of  them  refers  to  a 
stringy,  putty-like  mass  being  made  of  a  mix- 
ture of  lampblack  and  tar.  Some  years  after- 
ward one  of  the  laboratory  assistants  was  told 
to  make  some  and  roll  it  into  filaments.  After 
a  time  he  brought  the  mass  to  Edison  and 
said: 

"There's  something  wrong  about  this,  for 
it  crumbles  even  after  manipulating  it  with 
my  fingers/' 

"How  long  did  you  knead  it?"  said  Ed- 
ison. 

"Oh,  more  than  an  hour,"  was  the  re- 
ply. 

"  Well,  keep  on  for  a  few  hours  more  and  it 
will  come  out  all  right,"  was  the  rejoinder. 
And  this  proved  to  be  correct. 

With  the  experimenter  or  employee  who 
exercises  thought  Edison  has  unbounded 
patience,  but  to  the  careless,  stupid,  or  lazy 

30? 


METHOD    IN    INVENTING 

person  he  is  a  terror  for  the  short  time  they 
remain  around  him.  Once,  when  asked  why 
he  had  parted  with  a  certain  man,  he  said: 
"  Oh,  he  was  so  slow  that  it  would  take  him 
half  an  hour  to  get  out  of  the  field  of  a 
microscope." 

Edison's  practical  way  of  testing  a  man's 
fitness  for  special  work  is  no  joke,  according 
to  Mr.  J.  H.  Vail,  formerly  one  of  the  Menlo 
Park  staff.  "  I  wanted  a  job,"  he  said,  "  and 
was  ambitious  to  take  charge  of  the  dynamo- 
room.  Mr.  Edison  led  me  to  a  heap  of  junk 
in  a  corner  and  said :  '  Put  that  together  and 
let  me  know  when  it  is  running.'  I  didn't 
know  what  it  was,  but  received  a  liberal  educa- 
tion in  finding  out.  It  proved  to  be  a  dynamo, 
which  I  finally  succeeded  in  assembling  and 
running.  I  got  the  job." 

A  somewhat  similar  experience  is  related 
by  Mr.  John  F.  Ott,  who,  in  1869,  applied  for 
work.  This  is  the  conversation  that  took 
place,  led  by  Edison's  question: 

"What  do  you  want?" 

"Work." 

"Can  you  make  this  machine  work?"  (ex- 
hibiting it  and  explaining  its  details). 
20  303 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

"Yes." 

"Are  you  sure?" 

"Well,  you  needn't  pay  me  if  I  don't." 

And  thus  Mr.  Ott  went  to  work  and  accom- 
plished the  results  desired.  Two  weeks  after- 
ward Edison  put  him  in  charge  of  the  shop. 
Although  this  was  more  than  forty-one  years 
ago,  Mr.  Ott  is  still  a  valued  member  of  Mr. 
Edison's  staff  at  the  laboratory. 

Examples  without  number  could  be  given 
of  Edison's  inexhaustible  fund  of  ideas,  but 
one  must  suffice  by  way  of  example.  In  the 
progress  of  the  ore-concentrating  work  one  of 
the  engineers  submitted  three  sketches  of  a 
machine  for  some  special  work.  They  were 
not  satisfactory.  He  remarked  that  it  was 
too  bad  there  was  no  other  way  to  do  the 
work.  Edison  said,  "Do  you  mean  to  say 
that  these  drawings  represent  the  only  way 
to  do  this  work?"  The  reply  was,  "I  cer- 
tainly do."  Edison  said  nothing,  but  two 
days  afterward  brought  in  his  own  sketches 
showing  forty-eight  other  ways  of  accomplish- 
ing the  result,  and  laid  them  on  the  engineer's 
desk  without  a  word.  One  of  these  ideas,  with 
slight  changes,  was  afterward  adopted. 

304 


METHOD    IN    INVENTING 

This  chapter  could  be  continued  to  great 
length,  but  must  now  be  closed  in  the  hope 
that  in  the  foregoing  pages  the  reader  may 
have  caught  an  adequate  glance  of  Mr.  Edison 
at  work. 


XXIV 

EDISON'S    LABORATORY   AT   ORANGE 

IF  Longfellow's  youth  "Who  through  an 
Alpine  village  passed"  had  been  Edison, 
the  word  upon  his  banner  would  probably  not 
have  been  " Excelsior "  but  "Experiment." 
This  seems  to  be  the  watchword  of  his  life, 
and  is  well  illustrated  by  a  remark  made  to 
Mr.  Mason,  the  superintendent  of  the  cement 
works:  "You  must  experiment  all  the  time; 
if  you  don't  the  other  fellow  will,  and  then  he 
will  get  ahead  of  you." 

For  some  years  after  closing  the  little  labo- 
ratory in  his  mother's  cellar  Edison  made  a 
laboratory  of  any  nook  or  corner  and  ex- 
perimented as  long  as  he  had  a  dollar  in  his 
pocket.  The  first  place  he  began  to  do  larger 
things  was  in  Newark,  where  he  established 
his  first  shops. 

While  life  there  was  very  strenuous,  he  tells 
of  some  amusing  experiences:  "Some  of  my 

306 


LABORATORY    AT    ORANGE 

assistants  in  those  days  were  very  green  in  the 
business.  One  day  I  got  a  new  man  and  told 
him  to  conduct  a  certain  experiment.  He 
got  a  quart  of  ether  and  started  to  boil  it 
over  a  naked  flame.  Of  course  it  caught  fire. 
The  flame  was  about  four  feet  in  diameter  and 
eleven  feet  high.  The  fire  department  came 
and  put  a  stream  through  the  window.  That 
let  all  the  fumes  and  chemicals  out  and  over- 
came the  firemen. 

"  Another  time  we  experimented  with  a  tub- 
ful  of  soapy  water  and  put  hydrogen  into  it 
to  make  large  bubbles.  One  of  the  boys,  who 
was  washing  bottles  in  the  place,  had  read  in 
some  book  that  hydrogen  was  explosive,  so  he 
proceeded  to  blow  the  tub  up.  There  was 
about  four  inches  of  soap  in  the  bottom  of  the 
tub,  which  was  fourteen  inches  high,  and  he 
filled  it  with  soap-bubbles  up  to  the  brim. 
Then  he  took  a  bamboo  fish-pole,  put  a  piece 
of  lighted  paper  at  the  end  and  touched  it  off. 
It  blew  every  window  out  of  the  place." 

We  have  seen  that  Edison  moved  to  Menlo 
Park,  where  he  had  a  very  complete  labo- 
ratory, in  which  he  brought  out  a  large  num- 
ber of  important  inventions.  After  a  time, 

307 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

however,  this  establishment  was  outgrown  and 
lost  many  of  its  possibilities,  and  he  began  to 
plan  a  still  greater  one  which  should  be  the 
most  complete  of  its  kind  in  the  world. 

The  Orange  laboratory,  as  was  originally 
planned,  consisted  of  a  main  building  two 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  long  and  three  stories 
in  height,  together  with  four  other  structures, 
each  one  hundred  by  twenty-five  feet  and 
only  one  story  in  height.  All  these  were  sub- 
stantially built  of  brick.  The  main  building 
was  divided  into  five  chief  divisions — the 
library,  office,  machine-shops,  experimental 
and  chemical  rooms,  and  stock-rooms.  The 
smaller  buildings  were  to  be  used  for  various 
purposes. 

A  high  picket  fence,  with  a  gate,  surrounded 
these  buildings.  A  keeper  was  stationed  at 
the  gate  with  instructions  to  admit  no  strang- 
ers without  a  pass.  On  one  occasion  a  new 
gateman  was  placed  in  charge,  and,  not 
knowing  Edison,  refused  to  admit  him  until 
he  could  get  some  one  to  come  out  and 
identify  him. 

The  library  is  a  spacious  room  about  forty 
by  thirty-five  feet.  Around  the  sides  of  the 

308 


LABORATORY    AT    ORANGE 

room  run  two  tiers  of  gallery.  The  main 
floor  and  the  galleries  are  divided  into  alcoves, 
in  which,  on  the  main  floor,  are  many  thou- 
sands of  books.  In  the  galleries  are  still  more 
books  and  periodicals  of  all  kinds,  also  cab- 
inets and  shelves  containing  mineralogical 
and  geological  specimens  and  thousands  of 
samples  of  ores  and  minerals  from  all  parts  of 
the  world.  In  a  corner  of  one  of  the  galleries 
may  be  seen  a  large  number  of  magazines 
relating  to  electricity,  chemistry,  engineering, 
mechanics,  building,  cement,  building  ma- 
terials, drugs,  water  and  gas  power,  auto- 
mobiles, railroads,  aeronautics,  philosophy, 
hygiene,  physics,  telegraphy,  mining,  metal- 
lurgy, metals,  music,  and  other  subjects;  also 
theatrical  weeklies,  as  well  as  the  proceedings 
and  transactions  of  various  learned  and  tech- 
nical societies.  All  of  these  form  part  of  Mr. 
Edison's  current  reading.  At  one  end  of  the 
main  floor  of  the  library,  which  is  handsomely 
and  comfortably  furnished,  is  Mr.  Edison's 
desk,  at  which  he  may  usually  be  seen  for  a 
while  in  the  early  morning  hours  looking  over 
his  mail. 

In  the  center  of  the  room  is  a  fine  model  of 
309 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

the  first  type  of  the  Edison  poured  cement 
house,  which  stands  in  a  miniature  artificial 
lawn  upon  a  special  table  prepared  for  it. 
Directly  opposite  to  the  entrance-door  is  a 
beautiful  marble  statue  representing  the  su- 
premacy of  electric  light  over  gas.  This  statue 
was  purchased  by  Mr.  Edison  at  the  Paris 
Exposition  in  1889. 

A  glance  at  the  book-shelves  affords  a 
revelation  of  the  subjects  in  which  Edison  is 
interested,  for  the  titles  of  the  volumes  include 
astronomy,  botany,  chemistry,  dynamics,  elec- 
tricity, engineering,  forestry,  geology,  geog- 
raphy, mechanics,  mining,  medicine,  metal- 
lurgy, magnetism,  philosophy,  psychology, 
physics,  steam,  steam-engines,  telegraphy, 
telephony,  and  many  others.  These  are  not 
all  of  Edison 's  books  by  any  means,  for  he  has 
another  big  library  in  his  house  on  the  hill. 

Turning  to  pass  out  of  the  library,  one's  at- 
tention is  arrested  by  a  cot  standing  in  one  of 
the  alcoves  near  the  door.  Sometimes  during 
long  working  hours  Mr.  Edison  will  throw 
himself  down  for  a  nap.  He  has  the  ability 
to  go  to  sleep  instantly,  and,  being  deaf,  noises 
do  not  disturb  his  slumber.  The  instant  he 

310 


LABORATORY    AT    ORANGE 

awakes  he  is  in  full  possession  of  his  faculties 
and  goes  "back  to  the  job*'  without  a  mo- 
ment's hesitation. 

Immediately  outside  the  library  is  the 
famous  stock-room,  about  which  much  has 
been  written.  Edison  planned  to  have  in  this 
stock-room  some  quantity,  great  or  small,  of 
every  known  substance  not  easily  perishable, 
together  with  the  most  complete  assortment 
of  chemicals  and  drugs  that  experience  and 
knowledge  could  suggest.  His  theory  was, 
and  is,  that  he  does  not  know  in  advance  what 
he  may  want  at  any  moment,  and  he  planned 
to  have  anything  that  could  be  thought  of 
ready  at  hand. 

Thus,  the  stock-room  is  not  only  a  museum, 
but  a  sample-room  of  nature,  as  well  as  a 
supply  department.  At  first  glance  the  col- 
lection is  bewildering,  but  when  classified  is 
more  easily  comprehended. 

The  classification  is  natural,  as,  for  instance, 
objects  pertaining  to  various  animals,  birds, 
and  fishes,  such  as  skins,  hides,  hair,  fur, 
feathers,  wool,  quills,  down,  bristles,  teeth, 
bones,  hoofs,  horns,  tusks,  shells;  natural 
products  such  as  woods,  barks,  roots,  leaves, 

3" 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF     EDISON 

nuts,  seeds,  gums,  grains,  flowers,  meals,  bran; 
also  minerals  in  great  assortment;  mineral 
and  vegetable  oils,  clay,  mica,  ozokerite,  etc. 
In  the  line  of  textiles,  cotton  and  silk  threads 
in  great  variety,  with  woven  goods  of  all  kinds, 
from  cheese-cloth  to  silk  plush.  As  for  paper, 
there  is  everything  in  white  and  color,  from 
thinnest  tissue  up  to  the  heaviest  asbestos, 
even  a  few  newspapers  being  always  on  hand. 
Twines  of  all  sizes,  inks,  wax,  cork,  tar,  rosin, 
pitch,  asphalt,  plumbago,  glass  in  sheets  and 
tubes,  and  a  host  of  miscellaneous  articles  are 
revealed  on  looking  around  the  shelves,  as  well 
as  an  interminable  collection  of  chemicals 
including  acids,  alkalies,  salts,  reagents,  every 
conceivable  essential  oil,  and  all  the  think- 
able extracts.  It  may  be  remarked  that  this 
collection  includes  the  eighteen  hundred  or 
more  fluorescent  salts  made  by  Edison  during 
his  experiments  for  the  best  material  for  a 
fluoroscope  in  the  early  X-ray  period.  All 
known  metals  in  form  of  sheet,  rod,  and  tube, 
and  of  great  variety  in  thickness,  are  here 
found  also,  together  with  a  most  complete 
assortment  of  tools  and  accessories  for  ma- 
chine-shop and  laboratory  work. 

312 


EDISON  AT  WORK   IN  ONE  OF   THE  CHEMICAL   ROOMS  AT   THE  ORANGE 
LABORATORY 


LABORATORY    AT    ORANGE 

The  list  above  given  is  not  by  any  means 
complete.  In  detail  it  would  stretch  out  to  a 
rather  large  catalogue.  It  is  not  by  any 
means  an  idle  collection,  for  a  stock  clerk  is 
kept  busy  all  the  day  answering  demands 
upon  him. 

Beyond  the  stock-room  is  a  good-sized 
machine-shop,  well  equipped,  in  which  the 
heavier  class  of  models  and  mechanical  de- 
vices are  made.  Attached  to  these  are  the 
engine-room  and  boiler-room.  Above,  on  the 
second  floor,  is  another  machine-shop,  in 
which  is  carried  on  work  of  greater  precision 
and  fineness  in  the  construction  of  tools  and 
experimental  models. 

There  are  many  experimental  rooms  on  the 
second  and  third  floors  of  the  -laboratory 
building.  In  these  the  various  experimenters 
are  at  work  carrying  out  the  ideas  of  Mr. 
Edison  on  the  great  variety  of  subjects  to 
which  he  is  constantly  devoting  his  attention. 
One  cannot  go  far  in  the  upper  floors  without 
being  aware  that  efforts  are  being  made  to 
improve  the  phonograph,  for  the  sounds  of 
vocal  and  instrumental  music  can  be  heard 
from  all  sides. 

313 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

On  the  third  floor  the  visitor  may  see  a 
number  of  glass-fronted  cabinets  containing  a 
multitude  of  experimental  incandescent  lamps, 
and  an  immense  variety  of  models  of  phono- 
graphs, motors,  telegraph  and  telephone  ap- 
paratus, and  a  host  of  other  inventions,  upon 
which  Mr.  Edison's  energies  have  at  one  time 
or  other  been  bent.  Here  are  also  many 
boxes  of  historical  instruments  and  models. 
In  fact,  this  hallway,  with  its  variety  of  con- 
tents, may  well  be  considered  a  scientific  attic. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Orange  laboratory 
some  of  the  upper  rooms  contained  cots  for 
the  benefit  of  the  night- workers.  In  spite  of 
the  strenuous  nights  and  days  the  spirit  of  fun 
was  frequently  in  evidence.  One  instance  will 
serve  as  an  illustration. 

One  morning  about  two-thirty  the  late 
Charles  Batchelor  said  he  was  tired  and  would 
go  to  bed.  Leaving  Edison  and  the  others 
busily  working,  he  went  out  and  returned 
quietly  in  slippered  feet,  with  his  night- 
gown on,  the  handle  of  a  feather-duster  down 
his  back  with  the  feathers  waving  over  his 
head,  and  his  face  marked.  With  unearthly 
howls  and  shrieks,  a  V  Indien,  he  pranced 


LABORATORY    AT    ORANGE 

about  the  room,  incidentally  giving  Edison  a 
scare  that  made  him  jump  up  from  his  work. 
He  saw  the  joke  quickly,  however,  and  joined 
in  the  general  merriment  caused  by  this  prank. 

A  description  of  the  laboratory  building 
would  be  incomplete  without  mention  of  room 
Number  12.  This  is  one  of  Edison's  favorite 
rooms,  where  he  may  frequently  be  found 
seated  at  a  plain  table  in  the  center  of  the 
room  deeply  intent  on  one  of  his  numerous 
problems.  It  is  a  plain  little  room,  but  seems 
to  exercise  a  nameless  fascination  for  him. 

Passing  out  of  the  building,  we  come  to  the 
four  smaller  buildings,  which  are  known  as 
Numbers  One,  Two,  Three,  and  Four.  The 
building  Number  One  is  called  the  galvano- 
meter room.  Edison  originally  planned  that 
this  should  be  used  for  the  most  delicate  and 
minute  electrical  measurements.  He  went  to 
great  expense  in  fitting  it  up  and  in  providing 
a  large  number  of  costly  instruments,  but  the 
coming  of  the  trolley  near  by  a  few  years 
afterward  rendered  the  room  utterly  useless 
for  this  purpose.  It  is  now  used  as  an  experi- 
mental room,  chiefly  for  motion-picture  ex- 
periments. 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Building  Number  Two  is  quite  an  important 
one.  As  the  visitor  arrives  at  the  door  he  is 
quite  conscious  that  it  is  a  chemical-room. 
Here  a  corps  of  chemists  is  constantly  kept 
busy  in  carrying  out  the  various  experiments 
Mr.  Edison  has  given  them  to  perform.  This 
room  is  also  one  of  his  special  haunts.  He 
may  be  seen  here  very  frequently  experiment- 
ing in  person,  or  seated  at  a  plain  little  table 
figuring  out  some  new  combination  that  he 
has  in  mind. 

A  chemical  store-room  and  a  pattern- 
maker's shop  occupy  building  Number  Three, 
while  Number  Four,  which  was  formerly  used 
for  ore  concentrating  experiments,  is  now 
used  as  a  general  stock-room. 

We  have  only  attempted  to  afford  the 
reader  a  passing  glance  of  this  interesting 
laboratory,  which  for  many  years  has  been 
the  headquarters  of  Edison  and  the  central 
source  of  inspiration  for  the  great  industries 
he  has  established  at  Orange.  Around  it  are 
grouped  a  number  of  immense  concrete  build- 
ings in  which  the  manufacture  of  phono- 
graphs, motion  -  pictures,  and  storage  bat- 
teries is  carried  on,  giving  employment  to  as 


LABORATORY    AT    ORANGE 

many  as  four  thousand  people  during  busy 
times. 

Needless  to  say,  the  laboratory  has  many 
visitors.  Celebrities  of  all  kinds  and  dis- 
tinguished foreigners  are  numerous,  coming 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  see  the  great 
inventor  and  the  scene  of  his  activities. 


XXV 

EDISON    HIMSELF 

TET  us  turn  from  what  Edison  has  done 
*— '  to  what  Edison  is.  It  is  worth  while  to 
know  "  the  man  behind  the  guns. "  Who  and 
what  is  the  personal  Edison? 
(Certainly  there  must  be  tremendous  force 
in  a  personality  which  has  been  one  of  the 
most  potent  factors  in  bringing  into  existence 
new  industries  now  capitalized  at  about  seven 
billion  dollars,  earning  annually  over  one 
billion  dollars,  and  giving  employment  to  an 
army  of  more  than  six  hundred  thousand 
people. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  there  is  any 
intention  to  give  entire  credit  to  Edison  for 
the  present  magnificent  proportions  of  these 
industries.  The  labors  of  many  other  inven- 
tors and  the  confidence  of  capitalists  and  in- 
vestors have  added  greatly  to  their  growth. 
But  Edison  is  the  father  of  some  of  these  arts 

318 


EDISON    HIMSELF 

and  industries,  and  as  to  some  of  the  others  it 
was  the  magic  of  his  touch  that  helped  make 
them  practicable. 

How  then  does  Edison  differ  from  most 
other  men?  Is  it  that  he  combines  with  a 
vigorous  body  a  mind  capable  of  clear  and 
logical  thinking,  and  an  imagination  of  un- 
usual activity?  No,  for  there  are  others  of 
equal  bodily  and  mental  vigor  who  have  not 
accomplished  a  tithe  of  his  achievements. 

We  must  answer  then,  first,  that  his  whole 
life  is  concentrated  upon  his  work.  When 
he  conceives  a  broad  idea  of  a  new  invention 
he  gives  no  thought  to  the  limitations  of  time, 
or  man,  or  effort.  Having  his  body  and  mind 
in  complete  subjection  through  iron  nerves, 
he  settles  down  to  experiment  with  ceaseless, 
tireless,  unwavering  patience,  never  swerving 
to  the  right  or  left  nor  losing  sight  of  his  pur- 
pose. Years  may  come  and  go,  but  nothing 
short  of  success  is  accepted. 

A  good  example  of  this  can  be  found  in  the 
development  of  the  nickel  pocket  for  the 
storage  battery,  an  element  the  size  of  a  short 
lead-pencil.  More  than  five  years  were  spent 
in  experiments  costing  upward  of  a  million 
21  3*9 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

dollars  to  perfect  it.  Day  after  day  was  spent 
on  this  investigation,  tens  of  thousands  of 
tubes  and  an  endless  variety  of  chemicals  were 
made,  but  at  the  end  of  five  years  Edison  was 
as  much  interested  in  these  small  tubes  as 
when  the  work  was  first  begun. 

So  far  as  work  is  concerned,  all  times  are 
alike  to  Edison,  whether  it  be  day  or  night. 
He  carries  no  watch,  and,  indeed,  has  but  little 
use  for  watches  or  clocks  except  as  they  may 
be  useful  in  connection  with  an  experiment  in 
which  time  is  a  factor.  The  one  idea  in  mind 
is  to  go  on  with  the  work  incessantly,  always 
pushing  steadily  onward  toward  the  purpose 
in  view,  with  a  relentless  disregard  of  effort  or 
the  passage  of  time. 

A  second  and  very  marked  characteristic 
of  Edison's  personality  is  an  intense  and 
courageous  hopefulness  and  self-confidence, 
into  which  no  thought  of  failure  can  enter. 
The  doubts  and  fears  of  others  have  absolutely 
no  weight  with  him.  Discouragements  and 
disappointments  find  no  abiding  place  in  his 
mind.  Indeed,  he  has  the  happy  faculty  of 
beginning  the  day  as  open-minded  as  a  child, 
yesterday's  discouragements  and  disappoint- 

320 


EDISON    HIMSELF 

ments  discarded,  or,  at  any  rate,  remembered 
only  as  useful  knowledge  gained  and  serving  to 
point  out  the  fact  that  he  had  been  tempo- 
rarily following  the  wrong  road. 

Difficulties  seem  to  have  a  fascination  for 
him.  To  advance  along  smooth  paths,  meet- 
ing no  obstacles  or  hardships,  has  no  charm  for 
Edison.  To  wrestle  with  difficulties,  to  meet 
obstructions,  to  attempt  the  impossible— 
these  are  the  things  that  appear  to  give  him 
a  high  form  of  intellectual  pleasure.  He 
meets  them  with  the  keen  delight  of  a  strong 
man  battling  with  the  waves  and  opposing 
them  in  sheer  enjoyment. 

Another  marked  characteristic  of  Edison  is 
the  fact  that  his  happiness  is  not  bound  up  in 
the  making  of  money.  While  he  appreciates 
a  good  balance  at  his  banker's,  the  keenness  of 
his  pleasure  is  in  overcoming  difficulties  rather 
than  the  mere  piling  up  of  a  bank  account. 
Had  his  nature  been  otherwise,  it  is  doubtful 
if  his  life  would  have  been  filled  with  the  great 
achievements  that  it  has  been  our  pleasure  to 
record. 

In  a  life  filled  with  tremendous  purpose  and 
brilliant  achievement  there  must  be  expected 

321 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDIS'ON 

more  or  less  of  troubles  and  loss.  Edison's 
life  has  been  no  exception,  but,  with  the  true 
philosophy  that  might  be  expected  of  such  a 
nature,  he  remarked  recently:  " Spilled  milk 
doesn't  interest  me.  I  have  spilled  lots  of  it, 
and,  while  I  have  always  felt  it  for  a  few  days, 
it  is  quickly  forgotten,  and  I  turn  again  to  the 
future.") 

Edison  at  sixty-four  has  a  fine  physique, 
and,  being  free  from  serious  ailments,  should 
live  to  a  vigorous  old  age.  His  hair  has  whit- 
ened, but  it  is  still  abundant,  and  though  he 
uses  glasses  for  reading,  his  gray-blue  eyes 
are  as  keen  and  bright  and  deeply  lustrous  as 
ever,  with  the  direct,  searching  look  in  them 
that  they  have  ever  worn. 

He  stands  five  feet  nine  and  one-half  inches 
high,  weighs  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
pounds,  and  has  not  varied  as  to  weight  in  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  although  as  a  young  man 
he  was  quite  slender.  He  is  very  abstemious, 
hardly  ever  touching  alcohol,  caring  little  for 
meat,  but  fond  of  fruit  and  pie,  and  never 
averse  to  a  strong  cup  of  coffee  or  a  good 
cigar. 

He  believes  that  people  eat  too  much,  and 
322 


>       EDISON    HIMSELF 

governs  himself  accordingly.  His  meals  are 
simple,  small  in  quantity,  and  take  but  little 
of  his  time  at  table.  If  he  finds  himself  vary- 
ing in  weight  he  will  eat  a  little  more  or  a  little 
less  in  order  to  keep  his  weight  constant. 

As  to  clothes,  Edison  is  simplicity  itself. 
Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the  subjects  in  which  he 
takes  no  interest.  He  says :  "I  get  a  suit  that 
fits  me,  then  I  compel  the  tailors  to  use  that  as 
a  jig,  or  pattern,  or  blue-print,  to  make  others 
by.  For  many  years  a  suit  was  used  as  a 
measurement;  once  or  twice  they  took  fresh 
measurements,  but  these  didn't  fit,  and  they 
had  to  go  back.  I  eat  to  keep  my  weight 
constant,  hence  I  never  need  changed  meas- 
urements." 

This  will  explain  why  a  certain  tailor  had 
made  Edison's  clothes  for  twenty  years  and 
had  never  seen  him. 

In  1873  Mr.  Edison  was  married  to  Miss 
Mary  Stilwell,  who  died  in  1884,  leaving  three 
children — Thomas  Alva,  William  Leslie,  and 
Marion  Estelle. 

Mr.  Edison  was  married  again  in  1886  to 
Miss  Mina  Miller,  daughter  of  Mr.  Lewis  Miller, 
a  distinguished  pioneer  inventor  and  manu- 

323 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

facturer  in  the  field  of  agricultural  machinery, 
and  equally  entitled  to  fame  as  the  father  of 
the  "  Chautauqua  idea/'  and  the  founder  with 
Bishop  Vincent  of  the  original  Chautauqua, 
which  now  has  so  many  replicas  all  over  the 
country.  By  this  marriage  there  are  three 
children — Charles,  Madeline,  and  Theodore. 

For  over  twenty  years  Edison's  happy  and 
perfect  domestic  life  has  been  spent  at  Glen- 
mont,  a  beautiful  property  in  Llewellyn 
Park,  on  the  Orange  Mountain,  New  Jersey. 
Here,  amid  the  comforts  of  a  beautifully  ap- 
pointed home,  in  which  may  be  seen  the  many 
decorations  and  medals  awarded  to  him,  to- 
gether with  the  numerous  souvenirs  sent  to 
him  by  foreign  potentates  and  others,  Edison 
spends  the  hours  that  he  is  away  from  the 
laboratory.  They  are  far  from  being  idle 
hours,  for  it  is  here  that  he  may  pursue  his 
reading  free  from  interruption. 

His  hours  of  sleep  are  few,  not  more  than 
six  in  the  twenty-four,  and  not  as  much  as 
that  when  working  nights  at  the  laboratory. 
In  a  recent  conversation  a  friend  expressed 
surprise  that  he  could  stand  the  constant 
strain,  to  which  Edison  replied  that  he  stood 

324 


EDISON    HIMSELF 

it  easily,  because  he  was  interested  in  every- 
thing. He  further  said:  "I  don't  live  with 
the  past;  I  am  living  for  to-day  and  to- 
morrow. I  am  interested  in  every  depart- 
ment of  science,  art,  and  manufacture.  I 
read  all  the  time  on  astronomy,  chemistry, 
biology,  physics,  music,  metaphysics,  me- 
chanics, and  other  branches — political  econ- 
omy, electricity,  and,  in  fact,  all  things  that 
are  making  for  progress  in  the  world.  I  get 
all  the  proceedings  of  the  scientific  societies, 
the  principal  scientific  and  trade  journals,  and 
read  them.  I  also  read  some  theatrical  and 
sporting  papers  and  a  lot  of  similar  publica- 
tions, for  I  like  to  know  what  is  going  on.  In 
this  way  I  keep  up  to  date,  and  live  in  a  great, 
moving  world  of  my  own,  and,  what's  more,  I 
enioy  every  minute  of  it." 
.  (In  conversation  Edison  is  direct,  courteous, 
ready  to  discuss  a  topic  with  anybody  worth 
talking  to,  and,  in  spite  of  his  deafness,  an 
excellent  listener.  No  one  ever  goes  away 
from  him  in  doubt  as  to  what  he  thinks  or 
means,  but,  with  characteristic  modesty,  he 
is  ever  shy  and  diffident  to  a  degree  if  the 
talk  turns  on  himself  rather  than  on  his  work. 

325 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

He  is  a  normal,  fun-loving,  typical  Amer- 
ican, ever  ready  to  listen  to  a  new  story,  with 
a  smile  all  the  while,  and  a  hearty,  boyish 
laugh  at  the  end.  He  has  a  keen  sense  of 
humor/which  manifests  itself  in  witty  repartee 
and  in  various  ways. 

In  his  association  with  his  staff  of  experi- 
menters the  "  old  man,"  as  he  is  affectionately 
called,  is  considerate  and  patient,  although 
always  insisting  on  absolute  accuracy  and  ex- 
actness in  carrying  out  his  ideas.  He  makes 
liberal  allowance  for  errors  arising  through 
human  weakness  of  one  kind  or  another,  but 
a  stupid  mistake  or  an  inexcusable  oversight 
on  the  part  of  an  assistant  will  call  forth  a 
storm  of  contemptuous  expression  that  is 
calculated  to  make  the  offender  feel  cheap. 
The  incident,  however,  is  quickly  a  thing  of 
the  past,  as  a  general  rule.  ) 

If  there  is  anything  in  heredity,  Edison  has 
many  years  of  vigor  and  activity  yet  before 
him.  What  the  future  may  have  in  store  in 
the  way  of  further  achievement  cannot  be  fore- 
shadowed, for  he  is  still  a  mighty  thinker  and 
a  prodigy  of  industry  and  hard  work. 


INDEX 

ADAMS,  MILTON  P.,  63. 

Associates  and  helpers  at  Menlo  Park,  Edison's,  200. 

Automatic  telegraphy,  139. 

Automatic  telegraphy — selling  the  invention,  152. 

BAMBOO,  exploration  of  the  world  for,   194. 

Battery,  Edison's  new  storage,  274. 

Billy  L.  wrecks  the  office,  85. 

Black  Friday,  125. 

Bookkeeping  extraordinary,   134. 

Boston — Edison's  work  there,   102. 

Boyhood  of  Edison,  19. 

Brother  and  sister,  Edison's,  12. 

CARBON,  Edison's  invention  involving  the  use  of,   172. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  4. 

Cement,  Portland,  Edison's  work  in  making,  253. 

Cement,  Portland — Edison's  long  kiln,   257. 

Central  station,   the  first  for  electric  lighting  in  New 

York,  219. 

Childhood  of  Edison,  15. 

Circus  at  first  central  station,  New  York,  225. 
Cockroaches,  electrocuting,  108. 

DEAFNESS,  how  acquired,  38. 
Duplex,  Edison's  first,   119. 
Dynamo,  the  "Jumbo,"  216. 

EDISON  himself,  318. 
Edison's  family,  6. 

327 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Edison's  grandfather,  8. 

Edison's  father,  9. 

Edison's  mother,  12. 

Edison  Electric  Light  Co.,  209. 

Edison  starts  for  South  America,  91. 

Edison,  Tannie,  12. 

Edison,  William  Pitt,  12. 

Edison's  courage  and  optimism,  320. 

Edison's  clothing,  323. 

Edison's  desires  for  difficulties,  321. 

Edison's  diversions  in  his  telegraph  days,  72. 

Edison's  eating  and  drinking,  322. 

Edison's  home  and  family,  324. 

Edison's  method  in  inventing,  294. 

Edison's  night  adventure  with  policeman,  90. 

Edison's  reading,   325. 

Edison's  sleep,  324. 

Educated  by  mother,  19. 

Electricity,  Edison's  first  interest  in,   34. 

Electric — introducing  the  system  to  the  world,   208. 

Electric  light — Edison  organizes  shops  to  manufacture 
apparatus,  210. 

Electric  light,  first  exhibition  of,  206. 

Electric  light,  the,   183. 

Electric  light  system,  208. 

Electric  light,  the  feeder  and  main  system,   220. 

Electric  pen,  Edison's,   158. 

Electric  railway,  Edison's  early  roads,  229. 

Electric  railway,  jumping  the  track,  233. 

Electric  railway,  street  cars  operated  by  storage  bat- 
tery, 238. 

Electromotograph,  invention  of,   166. 

Empirical  methods,  300. 

Employment  in  New  York,  Edison's  first,  124. 

England,  Edison's  visit  to,  141. 

Escape,  narrow,  109. 

Experimenters  at  Menlo  Park,  Edison's,  200. 

328 


INDEX 

Experimenting  the  cause  of  Edison's  discharge  from 
telegraph  office,  76,  94. 

FARADAY'S  works,  Edison  buys,   104. 
Fooling  the  soldiers,   51. 

GENIUS,  Edison's  definition  of,  299. 
Giant  rolls,  245. 

Gold  indicator,  accident  to,  121-122. 
Gould,  Jay,  dealings  with,  151. 

HANDWRITING,  specimen  of  Edison's,  83. 

Hatching  eggs,  15. 

House,  the  poured  concrete,  262. 

INCANDESCENT  LAMP — artificial  filaments,  195. 
Incandescent  lamp — bamboo  filaments  discovered,  193. 
Incandescent  lamp — experiments  with  carbon,  metals, 

and  vacuum  pumps,   188. 

Incandescent  lamp,  the — Edison's  early  work,   186. 
Incandescent  lamps,  the  manufacture  of,  214. 
Independence,  132. 

Induction  coil,  Edison's  adventure  with,   117. 
Insull,  Samuel,  200. 
Invention,  Edison's  first,  106. 

Inventions,  Edison  sells  his  earlier,  130,  151,  164,  168. 
Inventions,  miscellaneous,  284. 
Inventions,  number  of  Edison's,  289. 
Iron  ore,  separating  magnetic,  242. 

LABORATORY  at  Orange,  306. 
Laboratory,  Edison's  first,  21. 
Laboratory — experimental  rooms,  313. 
Laboratory  on  train,  28. 
Laboratory — the  library,  308. 
Laboratory — the  stock  room,  311. 
Lecturer,  Edison  as  a,  in. 
Locomotive,  running  a,  42. 

329 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

MACKENZIE,  J.  U.,  37. 

Magnetic  ore  separation,  239. 

Manufacturer,  Edison  as  a  young,  137. 

Market  gardening,  23. 

Memory,  an  instance  of  Edison's  remarkable,  260. 

Menlo  Park — midnight  suppers,  202. 

Menlo  Park  — reminiscences  of  Edison's  staff  and  the 

work,  199. 

Menlo  Park,  the  laboratory  at,  197. 
Messenger  call,  Edison  invents,   156. 
Method  in  inventing,  Edison's,  294. 
Microphone,  the,   171. 
Milan,  removal  to,   10. 

Money — Edison's  first  large  earnings,  130,  151,  164,  168. 
Morse,  Samuel  F.  B.,  2. 
Motion-pictures,  264. 

Motion-pictures,  Edison's  camera  for,  268. 
Motion-pictures — kinetoscope,   2  70. 
Motion-pictures — making  the  pictures,  271. 

NEWSBOY  DAYS,  27. 

Newspaper  paragraph,  comic,  origin  of,  89. 

Newspaper  published  on  train  in  motion,  29. 

Newspapers,  selling,  by  telegraphing  news  ahead,  30. 

New  York — Edison  lands  in  poverty,  120. 

Night  adventure  in  woods,  47. 

Note-books,  laboratory,  297. 

OPERATOR,  adventures  of,  66. 
Operator,  an  impecunious,   100. 
Operator,  bribing  an,  79. 
Operator,  "salting"  a  new,  103. 
Operator,  the  young,  55. 
Orange,  the  laboratory  at,  306. 

PARAFFIN  PAPER,  Edison  makes  and  introduces,  158. 
Personality  of  Edison,  318. 

33° 


INDEX 

Phonograph,  improving  the,   180. 
Phonograph,  inventing  the,   176. 
Phonograph — making  the  records,  181. 
Poured  concrete  house,  262. 
Poverty,  Edison,   in,   120. 

Press  report  taken  by  ingenious  mechanism,  68. 
Prince  of  Wales,  visit  to  Canada,  48. 
Publishing  newspaper  on  train,  29. 

QUADRUPLEX,  exhibiting  the,  149. 
Quadruplex,  germ  of,  96. 
Quadruplex,  inventing  the,  148. 
Quadruplex,  selling  the,  151. 

RAT    PARALYZER,    70. 

SAVING  child  from  being  struck  by  moving  train,  36. 

School  days,  13. 

Seidlitz-powder  experiment,  20. 

Shocking  the  boys,  95. 

Signaling  by  locomotive  whistle,  61. 

Sleeping  in  roll-top  desk,  278. 

Sleeping  on  pile  of  iron  pipes,  223. 

Sleeping  on  table,  204. 

Snowed  under  in  a  blizzard,  99. 

Southern  gentleman  on  train,  story  of,  45. 

Stock  ticker,  Edison's  first,  115. 

Stock  ticker,  regular  work  on,  128. 

Storage  battery — Edison's  new  type,  274. 

Storage  battery  experimenters,  276. 

Storage  battery,   nickel  flake,  281. 

Storage  battery — stories  of  experimenters,  277. 

TAXIMETER,  the,   174. 

Telegraph,  Edison's  first  experiments  with,  35. 
Telegraph,    Edison    invents    sounder   on    a   new   prin- 
ciple, 1 66. 

331 


THE    BOY'S    LIFE    OF    EDISON 

Telegraph,  first,  2. 

Telegraph  lines,  private,  116. 

Telegraph  operator,  Edison's  first  position  at  Stratford 
Junction,  56.  » 

Telegraph  operator,  Adrian,  Michigan,  66. 

Telegraph  operator,  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  68. 

Telegraph  operator,  Detroit,  Michigan,  91. 

Telegraph  operator,  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  68. 

Telegraph  operator,  Louisville,  Kentucky,  77. 

Telegraph  operator,  Memphis,  Tennessee,  75. 

Telegraph  operator,  Toledo,  Ohio,  67. 

Telegraph  service,  demoralization  of,  77. 

Telegraphy,  automatic,  139. 

Telegraphy,  Edison's  first  lessons  in,  37. 

Telephone — Edison  invents  carbon  transmitter,  etc.,  162. 

Telephone  —  Edison  invents  many  types  of  tele- 
phones, 165. 

Telephone — Edison  sells  invention  to  Western  Union,  164. 

Telephone,  loud-speaking,   168. 

Thomas,  General,  cipher  message  for,  80. 

Three-high  rolls,  246. 

Train,  Edison  put  off  on  account  of  fire,  38. 

Typewriter,  Edison  helps  to  complete  the  first,  155. 

UNDERGROUND  CONDUCTORS  for  electric  light — Edison 
works  in  trenches,  223. 

.WIRELESS  TELEGRAPHY,  284. 


THE   END 


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